


Living in the Walls of a Spaceship

by Amazionion



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Borrowers - Freeform, Complete, G/T, GT, Gen, Mild Injuries, Old Fic, Read at Your Own Risk, Shifting perspective, Swearing, VLD G/T, VLD GT, Voltron gt, forgive me I'm not used to the formatting, giant tiny - Freeform, gianttiny, oh wow is this nostalga, part of me pulling things onto here, space borrowers, there will NOT be individual chapter warnings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 34,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22146676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amazionion/pseuds/Amazionion
Summary: The Castle of the Lions had laid dormant for centuries. It was the perfect place for little people to move into the walls. Of course, they had to all evacuate when the Giants moved in.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

It was a harrowing time for the people living in the castle. After centuries of prosperous times, food growing outside, plenty of spaces inside, and no predators in sight, the worst thing imaginable happened. Giants had moved into the castle.

Actually, seven Giants moved into the castle. Two, it had seemed, were already there, but sleeping the whole time the other residents had lived there. Most of the ancient stories made sense if that was the case, but it was still a terrifying thought. Giants in slumber right under the noses of the residents of the castle’s walls.

As soon as they realized how much danger they were in from these enormous and violent creatures, evacuation plans were put into effect. People had been packing for several days, and all of the families that were in charge of the crops had already left for the colony at the other side of the bridge. The majority of the people who were living in the walls were almost ready to leave or had left. Well, it seemed all but one.

Cade had always been considered the odd one of the castle colony. He lived deep in the ventilation system of the castle, away from everyone else on his own. He also was the one who would round up his few friends and go on weeks long expeditions to the far side of the castle, to places not touched by their people for decades. He and his friends would always bring back the strangest things from these expeditions. Things that had been obviously made for the Giants that had made their dens in the monolithic hallways and rooms of the castle.

Now, the man stood in his house, his best friends furious at him. “You only just now started packing!” His friend, Brian, shouted. “My sisters and I are leaving at dawn! You idiot, do you want to be living here with the Giants or something?!”

“Dude, it’s fine.” Cade stood up from where he had been putting his personal records with his archive off his findings in his large bag. “I’m packing now, and I should be ready to leave in two days or so, I’ll be with the last group that leaves.”

“Cade.” His friend and crush, Angelica, put her hand on his shoulder. “Brian and his family are going with the last group at dawn. I am going with them. You will be alone before tomorrow afternoon, and all the entrances to the outside will be sealed.”

Cade did a double take at that. “What? What day is it?”

Brian sighed. “Listen, you were gone a whole extra day on your latest trip. We were worried you’d been caught."

Cade huffed angrily. “Well, I wasn’t. So, I’ll stay up later tonight and I will be with you by morning. I promise. Now either help me pack or go home. It’ll be the last night you’ll be able to sleep in your own bed.”

It was sometime late that night when he heard scrabbling in the vents. Loud scrabbling. Like the animals the Giant’s had brought in were in the ventilation. He grabbed the blade he used to defend himself from creatures like these off its hook and went outside, bag slung securely over his shoulder, weapon in hand.

The lights in the vents were glowing purple, making the metal look darker in comparison to the blue light that had been there. “That wasn’t like that this morning.” He noted, gripping the strap of his bag tightly. “What else are those blasted Giants up to?”

The scrabbling grew louder. The animals that the Giant’s had brought with them were charging down the ventilation at him. He dove into one of the smaller tubes that went all over the ship and pressed himself into a shadow. He waited until the scrabbling was gone. “Good thing I’m moving house. Those things definitely saw it.”

He was about to head back to his home when he heard a thunderous bang upwind of the shafts, followed by more frantic bangs, getting closer all the time. He pressed further back into the tube. He heard a deafening thud, and the hand of one of the Giant’s landed directly out of the tube he was hiding him. Cade’s heart leapt up into his throat. How had one of the Giant’s gotten into the vents? He heard a loud crash, different from the banging, and more of the banging of the Giant’s various body parts against the metal shaft that rattled his bones as the Giant crawled away.

He refused to leave the tube he was hiding in for what felt like an eternity. His heart was beating so fast, it felt like his chest would explode. Once he was sure that nothing else was coming through the vents, he cautiously creeped out. He looked to where the Giant left. Nothing, except, was that a piece of metal?

He looked in front of him, and saw more scraps of metal and building material. Looking to the other side, a knot of dread in his stomach now, he saw what remained of his home. There was a clear space where most of his walls and roof used to be. The material was scattered everywhere, as was his belongings. The knot of dread tuned into a sharp pain.

That damn Giant had kicked his house, destroyed everything he had to his name, and hadn’t even noticed. Fighting back tears, he stepped over the remnants of the side wall of his house, taking everything in.

Some of the stuff on the back wall was still there, pinned or tied to the wall as it was, but most of his stuff was scattered throughout the section of the vent, or broken beyond its use. He bent down and under a bit of his former roof, he found an old drawing of him and his two friends. He wasn’t going to take this earlier, they had other, better pictures of the three of them, but it was almost hopeless to try and find them, the vents had just turned on, a breeze sweeping through the section of the shaft, taking all the light materials and scattering them even further. He managed to grab some other essential items, the last of his food and water rations included, before they blew away and stuffed them in his satchel.

He took one long look upwind of the vent, then curled up onto his bed, shielded from the destructive force of the Giant by being so close to the back wall that its foot hadn’t scattered it. Tears were summoned to the corners of his eyes, but didn’t spill over.

His entire home that he had built with his own two hands had been destroyed, a good portion of his personal belongings scattered to the winds, and he was going to be completely vulnerable for the remainder of the last night in his house under the eerie purple glow of the lights.

At least I’ll be able to make it on time for the last group to go tomorrow. He thought with his eyes shut tight as he hugged his pillow. At least I won’t have to make the trip to the Bridge colony alone. I’ll have my friends.

Little did he know, his life was about to get so much worse.


	2. Chapter 2

Cade was late in waking. Huh? Where am I? He sat up and looked around, this wasn't his house. Everything that had happened yesterday came flooding back. Oh, right. Home was destroyed.

A wave of self-hatred washed over him. How could he be so stupid? Go observe the Giants. Go steal some of their stuff. Don't move into town when they started poking around in the walls. Keep your home in the ventilation when they had their animals scuttering through them and the Giants themselves could easily get to it.

He dragged himself from the bed. He might as well finish packing. Then he better hurry up and get with the group. He tore down his maps of the insides of the walls and stuffed them in his bag. A lot of the debris from the initial destruction had been swept away. Scattered to the winds.

He spent a little while picking over what was left. There was his smaller satchel, stuffed full of his food and water rations from what he was able to snag last night, and his large bag, which he had put several personal items, and a lot of the smaller stuff he had found while exploring. He stared at the wall for a long time, where one of his best finds hung. It was a large gold hoop. There had been a large, glass-like stone on one side, but Angelica had removed it and had kept it with her, she had enjoyed the way it sparkled in the light.

Cade had always liked it, and it was the only one they had been able to find. Now that a lot of his other things were gone, it was a no brainer to take it now. He took it off its hook and tied it to the large bag across his back, much like he had done when he had first taken it from one of the cavernous rooms that made up the dwellings of the Giants.

With a last, final glance around the place, he started for the town and the close of this chapter of exploration in his life. He was getting close when he heard scratching. His hair stood on end and he whipped around, yanking his sword out of its scabbard and holding it out in front of him.

The animals were back. He saw only one of them, the one with blue fur and bright red eyes. It stopped as it rounded the corner and saw Cade. Rage boiled up inside the man. These things were there before the Giant smashing through his home. These things had forced him to lose his best entries to the ventilation system. If he couldn't let his anger loose on those that actually destroyed his home and chose for the closest thing.

He charged and a wild, frustrated cry left his throat. The animal growled and hopped back. "Stay back!" He shouted, swinging the blade through the space between them. "Back!" He stabbed his sword at it, causing it to flinch back. "Back you mangy animal!" He jabbed his sword at its face again, and it snarled and skittered away. He confidently stuck his sword back in its sheath and continued on his way to town.

He had gotten back into the hollow space between the walls and most of the way to the town when the world started shaking. The trembling was so bad that he fell over. "What the hell?!" He shouted at the world. Everything was going wrong. At this rate, he'd never make it.

He stumbled and grabbed onto what he could to hold himself upright. He heard something grind against something else and he glanced up just as soon as something heavy and metal crashed down on top of him. Stars danced across his vision, and that was the last he could remember.

\------

A loud groan escaped him as Cade was roughly dragged to consciousness. His head felt fuzzy. He tried to move his leg but it had something on it. He twisted around, and regretted doing it so fast from his head's pounding. A metal bracket of sorts had trapped his legs. He took a moment to clear his head and strained to move his legs.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" He managed to pull one leg, then the other, out from under it. He crawled over to the wall and leaned against it. His head was pounding. He took several deep breaths and slowly felt up to his head. He felt something sticky. "Oh no."

He pulled his hand away, and a smudge of congealing blood was on his fingertips. "Dammit!" He wiped his hand on his shirt and tried to remember how long it normally takes blood to congeal to the point of it has. "Maybe they're still there."

It was on a prayer, but they managed to get to town without passing out. And what he found made him feel even worse. It was like the town had never existed. Homes that had been lived in for generations were covered up and sealed. The exit was gone. Completely sealed up. There was nothing. They had left without him. He was alone.

"No. No. No! No! NO!" He slammed his fist into the wall, stinging knuckles taking the attention away from his head injury. "On all the days, all the days that I needed to be somewhere, everything just had to go wrong."

A stray thought ran across his mind. There was a kid who lived away from the village. He lived far enough away that he might have not made it with the final group out of the colony, especially if he had been hiding from guards. "Simon!"

He collected himself and he took off in a sprint towards where he knew the street kid lived. Well, he technically didn't live anywhere, it was a hiding hole he'd shoved a bed and his few possessions in and called his home.

"Simon!" He shouted over the pounding in his head as he approached the hiding spot. "Simon!" He didn't hear any reply as he slowed to a stop outside the entrance to the hole. "Simon, are you still here bud?" He knocked on the wall. "Simon?"

There was no response, but he had to make sure that he wasn't there. He had to make sure. He dropped his bags and crouched down so he could peer through the entrance. It was so dark in there, he couldn't see anything, but he had to be sure that the kid was gone. He had to make sure.

The entrance was for a small child to use, and Cade was a grown man, a tall one at that, so he had to crawl to make his way inside. The dark hole, once he was inside, just confirmed his thoughts. There weren't any signs of Simon still living there. His bag was gone, so was his boots, all that was left was his bed, and even then it had been stripped of almost all of the blankets.

He was relieved and at the same time, sad. He was glad that Simon had made it out with the others, but it also meant that he was completely alone in the Castle. He let his head gently lean back against the walls of the dark hole, and slowly let out a breath.

"You're a smart kid. At least you got out." He gently ran his fingers over the one remaining blanket before gently picking it up and folding it in his lap. "You better be okay."

He crawled out of the hole back into the light and he stuffed the blanket awkwardly into his already full large bag. He formulated a plan of action as he reorganized the bag again to accommodate the blanket.

First, he would have to take care of his injuries, his head had to be looked at and his hands were still hurting. Then, he would see what time it was outside, then . . . . then he would figure out what to do next. He brought out his first aid kit. After wrapping up his hands and treating his head, he headed for a known window in the walls of the Castle.


	3. Chapter 3

He made it out of the walls a good while later. He had been taking it slow as to make sure his body was functioning properly. Cade surveyed the area of the room he was in, noting the locations of the doors for the umpteenth time and making sure he didn’t hear any of the Giant’s thundering footsteps.

_Okay Cade. Just make the climb. It’s not that hard. You’ve done it a thousand times._ He gave himself a silent pep talk.

He pulled his three-pronged grappling hook and rope out of his bag and uncoiled the rope. He silently started to swing the hook and then threw it with all his might. It clattered on the top of the window sill and Cade winced at the noise. He glanced toward the entrances before making sure the hook caught on the ledge. He silently started to climb.

He had made it up to the top within a minute or so. He left his hook in place and stared out the window.

_What!_ Stars were twinkling in the black sky. _That’s impossible. How long was I out?_ He blinked several times, trying to will the sky to turn blue. His disbelief was cut short as the whole world jolted.

He barely was able to hang onto the narrow ledge. He saw the world outside from a new angle against the glass. Where there should have been ground was more sky. Stars twinkling in the midnight black background. His eyes darted everywhere, sky, sky, more sky. It was everywhere. Nothing looked like it should.

The world shook again and Cade was barely able to grab his hook to keep it from falling. He had enough of this horror show. He was going to find out what was happening, even if it meant doing something stupid. He could already hear Angelica nagging him in his mind.

_Sorry Angelica. I guess you were right._ He started his climb down from the window sill. _You keep us from doing stupid stuff._ This was going to be one of the stupidest.

He was going to follow the Giants from the safety of the ventilation systems and see if they knew anything. It was probably going to get him killed, or worse. Captured. But he really had nothing to lose. His whole life was ripped away from him, so at the least, he was going to get some answers.

He heard it too late. The footsteps. One of the doors opened and in walked one of the Giants. This was the one with the metal arm. By far it was one of the most intimidating ones, next to that one who wore yellow a lot. That one was a little more terrifying.

His heart started a frantic dance inside his chest and his suddenly sweaty palms slid on the-albeit thin-rope and he slipped and fell to the floor, his hook coming unhooked and crashing to the floor with him. He had been pretty close, but it still winded him as he scrambled to his feet.

He stared up at the giant as he shoved the hook back against his belt. He suddenly heard a faint ‘snick’ and felt the weight slip off his waist. He spared a chance down. He had cut his belt with the sharp side of his hook. His belt, his sword and sheath, and his bag full of food and water fell to the ground. He was about to grab it when he was reminded of the Giant.

His legs took off, heading straight for the vents. He dived behind a vent cover and waited, hand over his mouth to keep noise from escaping. He spotted his supplies, lying in a heap on the floor. His heart skipped a beat as he heard the Giant’s voice. “What the?”

Huge feet were planted on either side of his supplies. An equally enormous hand came from above and scooped up his only form of protection in this crazy, too large world, and the only easy source of food he had. It all was whisked out of his view.

He inched forward and looked up through the cover to the vents. It had his supplies on his metal palm and was inspecting it. He saw it pinch his sword between two of its fingers. He knew the strength that the Giants possessed. They tended to show it off plenty, so he knew that if it wanted to, it could snap his sword into pieces right now.

Suddenly, he heard another one of the Giant’s voice come from somewhere. “Shiro, please come to the bridge.”

“I’ll be there in a sec, Coran.” Cade could only watch in despair as the most important stuff to his survival was dropped in one of the pouches that hung on the Giant’s belt and be carried out of the room with the Giant’s ridiculously long strides.

“No.” He groaned, thumping his head against the side of the ventilation. All he had now was the maps to the walls of the castles, his personal memos, a catalog of his findings along with his biggest find, a picture of him and his friends, his climbing supplies, and two spare changes of clothes.

_This cannot be happening._

He decided the best thing to do would be to stake out the Giant’s den and wait for it to fall asleep. He could try to take his supplies back then. Cade cautiously made his way back to the den he knew that Giant inhabited.

He and his friends had gone in their dens before, just to scout them out. He knew which Giant slept in which one, and, he guessed as he walked, which ones would be the best to steal from. Since there was no way for him to get supplies like he normally had been, he would have to rely fully on the Giants.

_Stealing food is going to be horrible. I'm going to have to really ration out my supplies once I get them back._

_No._ He chided himself. _Not stealing. Helping myself. I’ve been living here my whole life, and my parents before me, and their parents before them, and their parents before them. If anything, they’ve invaded our place._

He found himself passing by one of the other Giant’s dens as he made his way to Shiro’s, as he had figured out his name. He didn’t pay it any mind until he saw a strip of blue cloth lying on the floor. An image of the broken belt flashed across his mind. Oh yeah.

He slid out of the ventilation into the empty room. He saw one of the Giant’s shirts lying in the floor. It already had plenty of holes in it. It wouldn’t notice just one more.

With a plan in mind, he pulled the small sharp stone out of his large bag and found a place where the fabric was already torn a little and with plenty of tugging and cutting with the sharp side of the rock, he had a fairly large strip of cloth.

Cade carefully tied the blue cloth tightly around his waist. The knot rested on his right hip, and the excess cloth hung down almost to his ankles.

_May have over calculated._

He grabbed the sharp stone and cut the extra cloth so the two strips only hung to about mid thigh or so. It wasn’t the best, but it would have to until he was able to find a better substitute for his broken belt.

He made it without much trouble to the Giant’s den. He decided that he probably would have to wait a little while. So, he decided to update his maps. He pulled them out and held them close to the light. He took a pencil and marked the room that he was hiding out in the ventilation of ‘Shiro’s den.’ If he knew his name, he should at least use it so he can stop referring to him as ‘The Giant with the Metal Arm.’

Cade had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity. He had kept dozing off until the insane amount of shaking. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He grumbled to himself as he tried to keep himself steady. “More shaking? What is even going on out there?”

Soon enough, the shaking stopped and all was still again. Cade had been dozing off for the second time when the Giant, Shiro, came back into his den.

Boots were kicked off and tossed to the foot of the massive bed. Cade put his head against the floor of the ventilation. He may have plans to watch the Giants, but he wasn’t a creep. He’d give him a little privacy before he went to reclaim his supplies.

Several minutes after the lights had been off; Cade was going to risk it. Leaving his large bag in the vent, he crawled from the vent into the room. He was against the side of the desk in the room. He stilled his own breathing to listen to Shiro’s.

It was deep, even breathing. He must be asleep. He carefully stepped away to glance at his huge form in the bed. He was on his side, his back to Cade. If he wasn’t even looking his way, that was even better. Cade threw his grappling hook up onto the top of the desk, wincing at the noise and glancing back toward the slumbering Giant. No movement.

He tugged at the hook, and it thankfully caught on something. He hauled down on the rope one last time to make sure it wouldn’t come off mid-climb before scrambling up the rope. He scrambled to the top of the desk, gathering up the hook distractedly when he spotted Shiro’s belt on the top of the desk in a heap.

_I had you pegged as one of the cleaner ones._ He thought as he stepped over part of the belt towards the pouches that held his supplies. _Must have had a tiring day stomping around and scaring the hell out of me._

He managed to pull one of the pouches open. The stuff that made it stay closed made a loud ripping noise as he opened it. He flinched and looked over to the Giant. He hadn’t moved. Still a good sign. It was hard to see into the pouch, so with one long glance toward the Giant, he crawled half inside, feeling for his stolen supplies.

He found nothing but some lint. “Damn it.” He whispered.

He crawled back out, but he felt something tug at him. He spotted the square of stuff that normally held the pouch closed had caught his new belt. He yanked it free.

Spotting the other pouch, he quickly walked over to it. With both hands, he yanked as hard as he could at the pouch. It also made the loud ripping noise. He remembered as he crawled on the flap the sticky stuff would catch his belt, so he made sure to not let it get caught before he crawled halfway into the pouch looking for his supplies.

Cade was so occupied with looking for his supplies; he didn’t see the Giant shifting around in his bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Despite the exhausting day of dealing with the bounty hunters that tried to steal the blue lion and the Balmera rejuvenation ceremony, Shiro hadn’t been able to sleep. He felt himself finally starting to drift off when he heard the sound of someone tearing velcro apart. It roused him, but he didn’t move, ears straining to hear something.

Then, he heard it again. The velcro. He rolled onto his back and turned his head toward the source of the noise. He saw his belt on his desk, one of the pouches open, a little grey thing rooting around inside one of his pouches.

His eyes widened. It was too small to be one of the mice. He heard a little hiss of triumph come from it and it crawled out, holding the thing he had grabbed earlier in the day. He still didn’t have a good sighting of it, so he propped himself up on his arm to get a better look at the little thing.

\------------

Cade’s thought of triumph that his rations were finally back in hand was shattered when he heard cloth rustling. He glanced up and saw the Giant staring back at him. His heart started an encore of its frantic dance and his blood felt like ice.

He could hardly move. He had yet to find his sword. It was still down in the pouch, well out of his reach. He couldn’t quite bring himself to break eye contact with the Giant. He didn’t know whether to stay still or run like hell. His legs made his mind up for him. He threw his provisions bag over his shoulders and took off for the edge of the desk. He remembered he had grabbed his hook, so he fumbled for it in his belt. It was caught pretty well in his new belt, so he had to come to a stop at the edge of the desk trying to yank it out.

He glanced up to see the Giant flinging the covers back and spring to his towering height. Cade finally got his hook undone when he saw one of the Giant’s hands come out of nowhere and wrap around his lean body.

A startled cry was ripped from Cade’s lips as he was whisked into the air. His provisions bag was being squished into his left side, and his arm was being pressed into his right. His left arm was free, and his hand still clutched the hook above his head where he had been about to throw it to an anchor point.

In a desperate move, he brought the hook down, and whatever his frantic mind had hoped it would accomplish, didn’t happen. It just harmlessly bounced off of the Giant’s metal hand.

\-------------

Shiro stared in awe at the little thing he had caught as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. He saw it bring the little hook it was carrying down on his prosthetic hand. He didn’t feel it. He brought up his other hand and pinched the hook between two of his fingers.

He didn’t want the little thing keeping his potential weapon. Shiro may have a prosthetic arm, but he didn’t want to lose an eye. He tossed it onto his desk and brought the little thing up to get a better view of it. It looked pretty human, despite the fact it couldn’t be much bigger than three or four inches tall. It had blond hair and pale skin. “What are you?” He found himself whispering.

It looked up at him with wide blue eyes. Shrio felt a pang of guilt. He didn’t want to scare the little guy, but he also didn’t want him to get away until he knew more about it. He glanced around his room to look for a decent place to continue this, and decided the bed was the best place.

\---------------

Cade struggled for all his was worth after his hook had been taken from him. The rumblings of the Giant’s voice didn’t register, just made his heart pound in his ears. The way the humid, hot air had washed over him made him desperate. He was way too close to its mouth for comfort. He didn’t need the reminder to know just how easily he could fit inside.

He tried not to choke on his own breath in the too tight grip of the Giant. He glanced up, pleading silently he’d just make it quick. The Giant broke eye contact, glancing around the room. After a moment, he felt the Giant walking. Footsteps were felt all the way up through its arm as it transported them to the bed.

He couldn’t even kick his legs properly because they were sealed up in the Giant’s fist. The most he could do was push at a metallic finger with one arm in vain. His chest felt tight from fear, and his breathing was restricted with the pressure.

The Giant settled himself on the bed, one leg extended along the edge of the bed, destroying his chances in escape.

_Who says I’ll even get a chance? Who’s to say he’s not just getting comfortable before killing you?!_

He glanced up at the Giant, frantic tears blurring his vision. He seemed concerned. Cade tentatively pushed against the index finger that was pulled too tight across his chest, trying to do something, no matter how feeble and in vain it was.

\-------------------

Shrio made sure he’d be able to stop the little guy before he made another run for it before looking back down to him. The little guy glanced up, and he saw little tears in the corner of those minuscule eyes.

He felt a knife stab him in his heart when the little man pushed at his fingers with his free arm. It made him look so helpless, and it was all his fault. Shiro lowered his hand to the bedspread and opened his fist. The small man tumbled onto the sheet and fell to his hands and knees. He hated how terrified the little guy seemed as he curled up into a ball. He saw tiny hands cover his neck, a weak protection against Shiro's immense store of strength.

“Can you understand me?” He asked softly. No response. “Hey, it’s okay. I just want to ask a few questions.”

\-------------------

Cade was preparing for the worst. Waiting to be killed. Praying this was a nightmare, that he had fallen asleep waiting for him to come back and that any second now he’d wake up. He heard the Giant’s voice. “Can you understand me?” He didn’t reply. “Hey, it’s okay. I just want to ask a few questions.”

He had just been almost crushed by him, and now he wanted to interrogate him. He guessed that he wasn’t going to be left alone. Cade slowly unfurled himself from the ball he was in. Cade quickly glanced around to get an idea of possible escape routes. His leg was extended to his left, to get over the side, he’d have to climb over him.

He glanced up. The Giant was leaning over him, staring almost straight down at him. He looked even more intimidating at this angle. _Shit. I’m so screwed._ He swallowed dryly.

Suddenly, he saw the Giant move one of his hands toward him, no doubt to pick him up again. Cade scrambled backwards. “Stop!” He flung an arm out in a desperate attempt to defend himself. What he would to to have found his sword first instead of his provisions bag.

“You can speak.” He sounded surprised.

“Of course I can speak.” Cade slowly continued his crawl backwards. “I’m not an animal.”

The Giant tilted his head slightly. “May I ask what exactly are you then?”

Cade shook his head. “No.”

“May I ask for your name?” Cade halted his crawl. “My name’s Shiro.”

Cade licked his dry lips. He already knew his name, but he didn’t want him to know that. “Cade.” He said simply.

“Cade.” Shiro repeated. “What were you doing in my room?”

There was, surprisingly, no trace of anger in that voice. “I, uh.” What was he doing? This was suicide. “I was trying to get my stuff back. You picked it up and I-” He stopped speaking when Shiro turned to look back at his desk.

“That thing from earlier was yours?”

Cade carefully nodded. “Yeah. I had to leave it and get to cover.” He clutched the strap of his provisions bag.

“You don’t have to be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you.” Shiro glanced back at Cade.

_Tell that to my aching rib cage, Giant._


	5. Chapter 5

Shiro had made a little progress with the little guy, Cade, as he now knew. He knew why he was there, and he had figured out that he wasn’t a threat. Which made him feel all the worse for terrifying him.

“So, uhm, Cade, how long have you been on our ship?”

The little guy glanced at the wall on the far side of the room. “Since I was born, so about twenty something cycles?” He shrugged. “It’s hard to keep track of time when you don’t go outside much.”

Shiro blinked, taking a second to register this new information. “Are there others like you here?”

He scoffed. “There _were._ Evacuation plans were put into effect pretty soon after you all moved in. Nobody in their right mind was going to stay in such close proximity to potential predators.”

It was hard to believe Cade was talking about them. They sounded like monsters.

_And probably look like it too._

Shiro took a moment to think how he’d look from Cade’s point of view. A memory of the giant monster movies he would watch when he was younger was brought to mind.

“Then why are you still here?” If these ‘others’ were gone, why wasn’t he?

He froze up. “I. . . I don’t owe you any answers!” Cade crossed his arms over his chest. “But if you must know, I overslept.” His shoulders drooped. “And by the time I got there, the exits were all sealed up.”

\-----------------

He saw something on Shiro’s face. It looked like pity, or sympathy. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” There was a silence afterward that stretched into the point of awkward, Cade promptly trying ignore Shiro. He didn’t know whether to accept Shiro’s pity or not. Before Cade could come to any decision, Shiro moved, and Cade toppled from the resulting earthquake.

Cade quickly pulled his knees up and covered his head with his arms. When he dared to look up after the shaking stopped, he saw Shiro off the bed, at the desk. His broad shoulders blocked Cade’s view of what he was doing.

After a minute, he came back and knelt by the side of the bed. “Here. I think these are yours.” He laid the back of his flesh hand against the bed. On his palm lay his sword, the broken belt, and his grappling hook and rope. Cade’s eyes widened. There was no way that he was just going to give these back to him.

\-------------------

Shiro knew how weak his apology had sounded. Apparently, just by living there, they had driven an entire species from their homes. No amount of ‘I’m sorry’ would change that. An idea pulled at his mind, a better form of apology than anything spoken. Actions spoke louder than words anyway.

_Not that he’ll_ need _me to speak any louder._

Shiro carefully got off the bed. He glanced down. Cade just seemed to drop away from just the simple motion of him standing. Pidge calling him ‘Godzirra’ flashed through his mind. He pushed that away quickly. He took a few swift steps over to the desk in his room. Shiro picked up his belt and emptied out the pouch into his palm. The little sword and the little strip of leather fell out. He set his belt back down and picked up the hook and thread from where he had taken it away.

_He must use that to get around._

Shiro turned back to the bed. He could hardly make out Cade’s minuscule features. With his grey clothing, he almost blended into the bed spread in the dim light. That blue belt he was sporting made him stand out a little. He knelt by the side of the bed. “Here. I think these are yours.”

Shiro laid his hand on the bed, palm up, waiting for Cade to make his move. There was a tense moment where Cade kept staring at his supplies offered on Shiro’s palm in utmost disbelief. He carefully crept towards the offered supplies.

Shiro held his breath as Cade made it to the side of his hand. He kept glancing at Shiro, clearly expecting this to be a trap. Some trick to get him back in hand. Shiro just gave a patient smile and kept as still as possible.

He watched Cade reach out with one arm, glance back at Shiro, then lunge the last few millimeters and grab the broken belt before hopping back. He kept staring as he shoved it into the satchel that hung around his shoulders. He did this twice more, getting halfway to grabbing his stuff, hesitating, quickly grabbing then moving away quickly, all the while glancing at Shiro in total paranoia.

When he had his sword, he scrambled back, staring at Shiro, who slowly let out his held breath. “What now?” He said skeptically, right hand clutching the pommel of his sword.

Shiro shrugged his shoulders and moved his arm off the bed. “What do you want to happen?”

Cade, still looking skeptical, carefully said, “I want to leave. I have things to do that don't involve being here.”

“I’m not stopping you.” Shiro moved from his kneeling position to sitting cross legged in the floor. “You can leave if you want to.”

\-----------------

Cade bit back a smart remark as he plotted his sprinting path. Best case, he actually gets out of here. Worst case, Shiro waits until he’s on the floor, then stomps on him. Cade hooked the grappling hook and coiled rope onto his belt. If he was going to get out of here, he could climb down the sheets and sprint to the vents. He wouldn’t need his hook. The sword, however, would be a little more of a challenge. He hadn’t modified his belt yet to accommodate it. For now, he tied the leather loop that had attached it to his other belt near his hook on the left side.

Cade glanced back up, Shiro hadn’t moved. He was still sitting in the floor. Cade took a deep breath, wincing a little at the flair up in his ribs. 

_Come on Cade. You got this._ He walked up to the edge of the bed. _Giant cloth is easy to climb. Plenty of finger holds._ He dropped down to a crouch, turning his back to the Giant for the first time since he had rifled around as he looked through his things, and started to climb down the sheets.

He tried to not freak out as he could feel those huge obsidian eyes staring into his back. He took semi-deep breaths to keep his heart rate down. He tried to focus solely on his descent from Shiro's bed. He didn't want to aggravate his ribs any more by falling. Also, it would be embarrassing. When he deemed himself close enough, he jumped to the floor, whirling around to keep Shiro in sight. He glanced towards the vent, then back at Shiro. They were just staring at each other. 

I don't know what to do. Cade thought awkwardly. I don't know if I should say something or-

Shiro's hand twitched, and Cade took off running. Cade’s lungs burned as he sprinted. His mind was telling him on loop how much of a dumbass he was for going in a Giant's den in the first place, climbing things and then running long distance while he was injured, and that he was still in reach if he tried to grab him again. The pounding of his heart was in time with the throbs of pain from his rib cage. His mind blurred from the pain. He made it to the vent cover and he dove inside, slamming into the floor of the ventilation.

A scream of pain left him before before be managed to slap a hand over his mouth. He couldn’t breathe deeply. His lungs burned, his ribs felt like a knife was being twisted around them. Tears came to his eyes, pain shooting across all the nerves in his upper body.

_Bad idea. Bad idea. Sprinting like that was a bad idea. Diving through the cover, bad idea. Slamming into the floor and bruising my already bruised ribs even more, a freaking bad idea._

He took shallow breaths as he lay there on the cool metal. Once the pain had died down to something manageable, he crawled over to his large bag and dug out his med kit again. He found the pain medication and downed a double dose, then washed it down with some water. His throat was, unsurprisingly, dry.

Now that he had some privacy, he could check and see how bad his ribs were. He ran a hand over the area, and in the dim light in the vents, he could see the dark bruises that were forming. He didn’t feel anything broken, so he lightly twisted his torso. Pain flared up and he grunted.

_Definitely bruised. But thankfully, not broken. Small blessings._

He shoved an extra dose of pain medication in his pocket and threw the med kit back in the bag. He grabbed his things and slowly vanished into the vents, intent of finding someplace where he could eat and drink without having a panic attack and something cold to lay on.

\-------------------

Shiro saw the little guy dive through the vent cover. He heard a noise that sounded suspiciously like a scream. He looked at the vent cover in concern. 

_Was he hurt?_

He hadn't seemed like he was in pain when he had first seen him rooting around, looking for his things. He had run all the way to the other side of Shiro's desk just fine. He hadn't even been winded when he had picked him up. 

_When I picked him up!_

Shiro glanced down at his metal arm, flexing his fingers. He had slammed that hook down on his hand pretty hard and he hadn't even felt it. He remembered the look of fear that Cade had given him after he had taken the hook from him. His mind recalled him pushing against his fingers in vain, tears in his eyes. _God, I'm an idiot. I grabbed him too hard and I hurt him._

 _You were crushing him._ His mind whispered relentlessly. _You could have broken all his fragile little ribs and you wouldn't have even noticed._

_Didn't even notice._


	6. Chapter 6

An alarm woke everyone up. While the paladins scrambled for the bridge, Cade had his hands clapped over his ears, waiting for it to shut off. It did after a minute, but Cade’s ears were still ringing during the following announcement of, “Sorry everyone. My bad. False alarm.”

“You almost made me deaf with that false alarm.” Cade waited until his ears stopped ringing to snap his fingers near his ears to make sure they were still working. They were.

He had enough food to last him for maybe five days, seven if he stretched it further. Not nearly enough time to heal. Brian had similar injuries when he had once fallen from somewhere, and his ribs were still not right twenty days later. And he had a steady supply of ice and pain medication. Cade had two more days of pain meds, and ice had been a luxury for him before his house was destroyed.

He had to take it easy these few days that he was able to. He would have to keep moving, the Giants knew he was here, and he had attacked their animals. No doubt they’d try to find him. He decided to take his meds and then work on his belt until he needed to do something else.

He decided that if he wasn’t done with his belt before he ran out of food then he would have to, one, work harder on his sewing because he’s going to have to live off of cloth scraps until further notice, and two, he would just have to go into the kitchens and steal food without his sword or his hook properly stored.

_I should probably try and build a tolerance to living on a fourth of what I’m used to._

\----------------

Guilt had continued to plague Shiro as he went about his morning. He had hurt someone who had been helpless against him. Cade was just trying to reclaim what was his and Shiro had hurt him. He hadn’t even noticed he was hurting him, he hadn’t even noticed how Cade was injured as he interrogated him.

_Stupid robot arm._

It was his weapon. It was his stronger arm. And he had used it on someone who didn’t deserve it. Cade’s bones had to be so fragile, so thin, so breakable. When he had stepped up to grab his sword he could hardly feel his weight he was so light. Shiro could have killed him if he had squeezed him any harder.

He glanced towards the vent covers as he passed them in the hallways. A question formed in the back of his head. Since he got around undetected, and he had gone into the vents for cover, did that mean that he lived in the walls? His mind singularly focused, he made his way to his room, quickly grabbing the Altean equivalent of a screwdriver from the Lion’s bay’s first. He had to check something now.

He managed to unscrew the vent cover in his room. He noticed how the ventilation system was lit. There were small blue lights embedded in the sides of the shaft that cast a light over the space. Why there were lights in the ventilation, he would have to ask Coran. He, personally, had no idea.

Approximating Cade’s size, Shiro stuck his hand in the vent. There was plenty of room for a guy Cade’s size to move around. About this time, he could feel the climate control kick on. Cold air started to make its way all around the ship. Shiro pulled his hand out of the vent.

The more he stared down the shaft, the more worried he became. If there was constantly air blowing around the ship, how would be keep himself warm? He wasn’t a biology major, but he knew that all living things needed energy to keep a constant body temperature. So, he would need to have a steady food supply. Shiro couldn’t come up with a reasonable place for a guy like Cade to get a sustainable source of food.

Partially driven by guilt, partially because he needed a way to apologize so he could clear his head a little and partially because it was the right thing to do, Shiro promised himself that he would figure out a way to help Cade. Even if it made him look a little crazy.

\--------------

Cade was looking over his belt. _I’ll have to see about making it blend in better._ The blue material made him stand out way too much.

He started off in a direction towards the Giant’s rooms. They might have something, as two of them tended to wear darker clothes. But this time he wasn’t going to take any risks. He would not be getting caught again. He didn’t want a repeat of a few days ago. That had been the most terrifying minutes of Cade’s life. The feeling of being completely trapped in another being’s fist. Having the life slowly crushed out of you and being completely helpless to do anything about it.

His ribs flared up at the reminder. He lightly put a hand against them. Definitely his worst injury by far. He noticed out of one of the vents, a length of black rope. Must be a thread from one of their clothing.

_I could totally use that._ He immediately thought. _I could so use that._

He had always been called a pack rat. He saw something he could possibly use, he would always grab it. Scraps of metal, bits of thread, heck, most of the stuff he had on him was repurposed things he had found. There was only a few things he had that was made by someone else. His sword and sheath the main one. He had to buy the rubber that made up his boot treads, and the cloth that made up his clothes was bartered for.

Cade made most of his stuff. It was the reason he had so many skill sets. He had come from a poor family, so they were always scrounging and repurposing things. The stuff that other families had donated out of sympathy never fit or never was just right so they would have to just re-make it so it would. He guessed that was why he was always why he was exploring and collecting things from outside the village.

He paused, listening. If he heard so much as distant footsteps, he wouldn’t do it. He was not getting captured again. He heard nothing. Nothing at all. It wasn’t that far from the vent, and it seemed that the coast was clear.

_Here I go._

He dashed out from the ventilation, taking in his surroundings in a second. One of the hallways. Nobody was around. He made it to the thread, grabbing it and coiling it around his arm as he retreated backwards.

_Faster, faster, come on._

He made it back to the vents. His ribs protested the quick movement but he didn’t care. He had something to work with. His mind raced at all the possibilities. He could break it down into its fibres and use that for a number of things, clothing, his belt, expanding his bag, making the strap of said bag sturdier.

He could practically hear Brian. “Easy there, Cade. You could overload your mind.” He always teased Cade about the fact he was good with reusing stuff. He’d always shoot right back with something about him being too good to the shop owners and their tailored made goods. He’d quip how it was to impress their daughters and then Angelica would end the argument or something.

He missed them. But he knew that they were safe. They were at the Bridge colony with their friends and families, safe, and far, far away from this crazy situation. He briefly wondered what they thought had happened to him. Cade shook his head. He had to focus on survival for now. He could think about them later.


	7. Chapter 7

Cade was on his last day of food. He had tried to ration it out, he really had. But it was all gone by the third day. He just had found himself too weak to go on without it. With him healing, he had allowed himself to not ration it, and now he was paying the consequences. The belt was finished, but he hadn’t had time to safely test out the durability of his new belt. The black thread had been broken down and woven into the edges of the belt, keeping it from fraying and making it a little darker. The remaining fibers were stored away in his large bag.

In addition, Cade couldn’t shake the paranoia that had been plaguing him all day. Something had just felt wrong. Normally, after finishing a big project like the new belt, he would feel accomplished, but he just couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.

He had been finding a good place to scout out the Kitchen when he heard a strange flapping noise. He poked his read around the corner of the shaft to see a white paper stuck in the vent cover.

_What in the name of Otega?_

He cautiously approached, wary of it being a trap. He listened and looked for any sign of the Giants. Upon hearing and seeing nothing that would indicate their presence, he grabbed the paper and yanked it into the vents with him.

It was folded. Cade glanced around, still paranoid, and carefully unfolded the paper. Unfolded, it was about as tall as he was, but three times as broad. It was a note. In big, blocky lettering, it read

**‘Cade, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for grabbing you. I never meant to hurt you. If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, please let me know. I just want to help.’**

Cade backed away from the note. _Help._ He thought, disgusted. _Help! What does he think I am? A beggar! Some kind of animal! I don’t need his help! I need him to leave me alone so I can heal._

He folded back up the note. He may be offended by what it said, but he wasn’t going to waste a material like this thick paper. He could use it to wrap up food or whatever. He would just have to cut it so he wouldn’t be able to read it.

\--------------------

Keith and Lance’s hearts were still racing after the cryopod-slash-airlock-slash-Gladiator -malfunction incident. They had bumped into Coran on the way, explaining what had happened. After hearing everything that had happened, even he had to agree that the Castle was acting strangely. The three of them set off to find the others.

“Hold on, where’s Shiro?” Keith asked. “Is he still with Sendak?”

“Last I checked.” Coran said warily. “Why?”

“If the Castle’s malfunctioning, then who’s to say that Sendak’s still detained?” They all glanced at each other, then started to race towards the detainment room.

\---------------------

Ever since finding the note, Cade’s paranoia had kept on growing. He couldn’t help but feel like something was aware of his presence when he wasn’t aware of it. As he walked, he kept glancing over his shoulder.

Suddenly, he heard clicking. Like when the locks to a door was unlocking. It normally was his que to run like hell, but he couldn’t quite place the noise, and he was in the vents, there were no doors. He looked around, and the noise stopped. “What the-”

Air blasted past him, stronger than the other time he had been caught in the stream of air. It knocked him off balance, and he ended up falling. Stars burst across his vision, and he cried out in pain as he was dragged along the floor. He scrambled to undo his hook, but he couldn’t see an anchor point. “Help!” He screamed, desperate. His mind was racing, nothing made sense. He had timed his routines perfectly so he would never be in the path of the climate control, this particular system shouldn’t be on right now.

He slammed into a bend in the ventilation, and he hit his head, hard. His limbs became jelly and his mind unfocused. He managed to recover in just enough time to yank his hook out and be prepared for when he hit another corner. His feet made contact with the sharp corner, and pain flared up in his ankles. He was dragged down the shafts several more feet.

He saw an upcoming turn off, so he threw his hook, and he passed the turn before he could see if it hooked or not. The rope that entwined his hand became taught, and he stopped his uncontrolled flight down the ventilation shafts.

Panting hard, and still not fully in control of where he was, he looked up. His three pronged hook wasn’t anywhere near as secure as he would have liked it to be. And as he watched, the way that his body was still wavering the rope, it was teetering more towards unhooking before his eyes.

“No! No, no, no, no, no!” The hook came unhooked. Before he was dragged too far by the air, he jerked to a stop. Looking to see what the hook was caught on, his heart skipped a beat. The animals that had plagued him non stop since their awakening had grabbed the rope with their teeth. It started to back up, out of the wind. He heard the chittering of the others behind it. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. They were rescuing him.

Soon enough, he was pulled from the brunt of the winds. He was on his hands and knees, the rope coiled partly around his body. He looked up. All four of the animals were watching him, heads cocked to the side, chittering quietly.

“Thank you.” Cade wheezed. “For rescuing me.”

They chittered at him. The small green one scuffled forward and dumped the hook on the floor in front of him. Cade sat up, uncoiling the rope from around him. “Thank you.” He said again, less wheezy to the smallest animal. It got up close to him.

Hoping he wasn’t about to do something that would main him permanently, he stretched out a hand and patted the animal on the head. It chittered happily and rubbed up under his fingers. A small smile tugged on Cade's lips. “You’re a cute little guy.” He chuckled. “I’d offer some food as a thank you, but I don’t have much.”

The other ones crept closer to him, nudging his outstretched arm, wanting attention. “I’d imagine the rest of you pitched in on the rescue?” Despite being animals, they seemed to understand what Cade was saying, doing everything short of nodding. Cade took his arm back and attached the rope and hook back on his belt, on his left, next to his sheath. His provisions bag was on his right, next to the knot of the belt.

Cade got to his feet. The aftermath of being tossed around the vents hit him hard. He hissed in pain and clutched his ribs. They still weren’t healed from his rough first close encounter with the Giants that lived in the castle, and being thrown around like that hadn’t helped.

_Ow!_

The animals squeaked in concern, surrounding him. Why he had been so scared of them before, he didn’t remember. It could have been because his first close encounter with them had resulted in the destruction of his house, or because he had first seen them with the Giants, and they were terrifying in their own right.

One of the animals carefully pulled on his sleeve. “Do you want me to come with you or something?” They tugged at his sleeve again, and one of the others nudged at the back of his legs. “Okay, okay, I’m coming.”

\----------------------

Shiro was still reeling from Sendak's words. He was leaning against the empty memory container, head in his hands. "Shiro, are you okay?" Keith asked, worried about his leader. "Where's Sendak?" It hadn't gone unnoticed that the Galra prisoner was missing.

"I-I had to get him out of here." He panted. "I-I was hearing his voice. He - He can't be trusted on this ship." He was freaking out.

"It is the ship!" Lance shouted. "It's been trying to kill us! I was stuck in a cryo-pod and then an airlock, and Keith was attacked by a robot!" 

Shiro noticed the lack of the other two paladins. "Where's Pidge and Hunk?"

They all looked at each other. "We....don't know." Keith admitted. "We didn't run into them on the way here."

Shiro stood up straight. "If the Ship really has gone haywire, we need to find them, immediately." The four of them made a beeline for the kitchen. It was the most likely place to find the Yellow paladin.

\----------

They had taken him to the kitchen, now devoid of Giants. Green goo covered the walls and was all over the floor. “What the heck?” He knew that he had seen the larger inhabitants of the castle eat this stuff, but he himself had never tried it. Also, why was it absolutely everywhere? One of the animals were eating one of the goo. Cade glanced towards the entrance of the room skeptically. “Is this what you wanted to show me?”

The small green one actually nodded. Okay, so they did understand him. Cade sighed, why not? Cade studied a nearby glob of the goo. He had been stalking the kitchen, looking for food.

_Don’t exactly have a choice, do I?_

He took a small glob of it on his fingers. He shoved any thoughts about how it could potentially kill him aside and put it in his mouth. The taste was….unexpected. It looked it would taste slimy, but it wasn’t. He could quite describe it. Cade swallowed.

_I guess it will have to do._

He started to go for the paper to make some kind of container to gather up the ‘food goo’ when he heard the most terrifying and ominous thing since the clicking noise in the vents. “Hunk! Pidge! You guys in here?”

_Giants!_ The fractured thought ran across his mind.He was in the middle of the floor, exposed. He had no cover when he saw a boot start to enter the door frame. _Shit!_


	8. Chapter 8

“Hunk! Pidge! You guys in here?” Lance went into the kitchen. “Holy crow!” When the rest of them got inside, they saw what he meant. Food goo was everywhere. The dispenser tube was tied in a knot and looked like it was about to explode.

“My kitchen!” Coran gasped, stepping inside the kitchen. “What happened?”

“It looks like the kitchen systems are glitchy too.” Keith said quietly from the doorway.

Shiro was distracted from everyone else by spotting a bit of blue moving on the floor. His heart clenched, Cade was on a mad sprint towards the walls. He sidled into the kitchen and placed himself between the others and Cade. He knew they probably wouldn’t hurt him, but he didn’t want to take chances with the fragile little guy.

\--------------

Cade flinched at the sound of the loud thumps that were _right behind him._ The vibrations knocked him off his feet, but he managed to catch himself on his hands and knees so as to not damage himself and turned to see what was going on.

Boots were planted a mere six inches from where he had been standing. His heart in his throat, he looked up. A towering, black clad figure had his back turned to him. Somehow, he had managed to make himself look even more intimidating than he was at any other angle.

_Shiro._ His mind supplied. _Otega's grace. Give a guy a warning._

“I don’t think they’re in here.” One of the other Giants said.

“Where else could they be?” he recognized the voice as the Giant who wore the brown jacket, but he couldn’t see him.

“Maybe Hunk’s with Pidge in the Green Lion’s bay?”

“Let’s go.”

The rest of the Giants left the room. Shiro turned and glanced down at Cade. Cade had to suppress a flinch as those obsidian eyes locked onto his small form from so high up. Shiro took a step back and knelt down. “Hey.” He said gently. “I see you got my note.”

Cade remembered the paper was probably sticking out of his bag.”Uh, yeah.” He tried to shove it back down in the outer pocket without looking. The guilt in Shiro’s voice hadn’t gone unnoticed to the small man. “Uhm, thanks, but-” His voice was still timid from the near death experiences he’d been having.

“I didn’t know how else to apologize.” Shiro’s voice shut him up like a slamming door. “I never wanted to...to hurt you.” He flexed his metal fingers.

Cade absently put his arm around his middle. “Eh, what you did was nothing compared to the vents.”

“What?” His eyes had widened.

“They had turned on when they were supposed to be off.” He glanced towards the nearest vent cover. “I don’t know why, but they did, and I wasn’t prepared, I kind of got slammed around.”

Shiro looked nervous, which sparked fear in Cade. If something as big and strong as him was nervous, Cade should be terrified. “The Castle’s been trying to kill you too?”

“I guess you could say that?” Cade got to his feet. What did he mean by too? “I mean, the Castle isn’t alive...is it?”

“I’m not really sure.” Shiro admitted. “I mean, probably not, but it’s been a weird morning.”

About then, the animals appeared, chittering rapidly at Shiro. “Oh, hey guys. I was wondering where you had gone off to.” He stroked the head of the yellow one with two fingers.

“They helped me, you know.” Cade gestured to the animals. “Them.”

“The mice?” Mice, he would have to remember that.

“Yeah, the vents would have dragged me a lot farther if it hadn’t been for them.”

Shiro looked at him. “Listen, if the walls aren’t safe for you anymore, let me help.” Cade froze. “I won’t force you into something you don’t want to do, but if I can help you, let me.” He extended his flesh hand, palm up, and laid it on the floor by Cade.

Cade didn’t know what to do, or even to say. This was a day he was not ready for when he woke up. The Castle may be alive, and trying to kill everyone inside, and now the same guy who had hurt him-though he was willing to forgive him for that-was offering help. If he went with him, he could get his answers, but there was chances of things happening. Like, becoming a pet, or being killed. Shiro seemed like a nice guy who was trying to make amends, but he knew very little about the other Giants. He didn’t know how they would react to him. On the other hand, if he refused, he would still be scavenging for food and basic supplies, and he may be caught and killed anyway by one of the others. Also, it was a good idea to not tick off a Giant who could easily sweep him up anyway and keep him no matter what his answer was.

He would be found at some point, it was inevitable. Either he would do it now, meet the others all at once and have some backup, or he would be doing it at some point in the future, alone, probably faced by a hostile Giant who wanted answers.

He was about to give his answer when he heard another voice. “Shiro, you coming?” He didn’t have to time to hope this wasn’t stupid and just jumped onto Shiro’s palm. He fell to his knees on the weird, living surface.

“Yeah. Just a second Keith.” His fingers sprang over Cade’s head, shielding him from view and lightly pinning him to his palm. “I found the mice.” He heard squeaking from somewhere outside.

“Oh. Okay.” He was moving. Cade braced a hand against the large fingers that arched overhead. His stomach dropped onto the ground as he skyrocketed several feet into the air in a matter of seconds.

He could feel those thunderous footsteps travel all the way through his body. He couldn’t believe what he was doing. This was crazy. This was suicide. This was…..surprisingly nice actually. It was warm, and dark, like he was wrapped up again in his thick old blanket. If he blocked out the background noise, then he discovered he actually liked the weird swaying sensation.

_What in Otega's grace did I just think? Cade, snap yourself out of it. You are completely in the grasp of a Giant. The same Giant, I remind you, that gave you those bruised ribs._

The fingers arched away from over top of him. He was being held behind Shiro’s back, out of sight of the other Giants. He could see the ceiling so high above him. The very walls he traveled within were passing him by at a rate he couldn’t attain at a flat sprint.

His heart was still in his throat as he sat up, looking around. The mice were perched up on Shiro’s shoulder. Cade could hear the voices of the other Giants. “They better be here.” One of them muttered.

He heard a door open, and two loud thuds. “How can you guys be taking a nap while this Castle’s trying to kill us?”

“Taking a nap? We’ve been floating around in zero G! You know how scary that is?” He recognized that voice. It was the one who wore yellow a lot. Right?

“That’s not scary! That’s fun! I was almost ejected into space!” Cade covered his ears at the yelling. For creatures that had voices loud enough to be heard from a long ways off, they sure loved to yell.

“Well, I got attacked by killer food, and that’s the most horrifying thing you can imagine!” Cade had to agree. “The stuff of nightmares! It’ll haunt me to my grave!” Maybe not to that extent.

“Well, I had a robot trying to kill me!” Another one of them started yelling.

“I don’t care what you say, Coran. This castle has gone apples and bananas!” So, one of them was named Coran. Didn’t know which one though.

One of them started to speak in a much quieter voice. “Perhaps the infection from Sendak’s Galra crystal is worse than we thought.”

“Well, then let’s get rid of it.” One of them suggested.

“It’s too late. When Sendak plugged it into the ship, it corrupted the entire system.”

“Sendak...” Shiro’s murmuring was cut off by a loud beeping noise by what Cade could only guess was the castle.

“What? How is that possible?”

“What is it?” Shiro asked, head turned to see a blinking red panel.

“The ship is starting a wormhole jump!” Wait. Did he just call the castle a ship? What secrets did his home hide? And did this have anything to do with the fact the sky has been night for seemingly ever?

“Let’s go.” Cade was moved to hovering around Shiro’s front as he turned. He felt very exposed as the other Giants appeared on his right and left. They all set off at a faster walking pace than before.

Soon, Cade still being unnoticed by the others, they had all arrived at a much larger room Cade had never seen before. The woman Giant was standing, hands on some kind of controls. She had very light blue hair. Strange.

“Allura. What’s going on?” Shiro demanded.

She turned slightly to face them all, a far off, dreamy look was in her eyes. “We’re going to Altea. We’re going home.”

They moved towards her, Cade being slid from Shiro’s hand to on top of what he could assume was another set of controls. The mice jumped from his arm to stand on the housing for the controls next to him.

“Stay away from my daughter!” A voice echoed.

“Allura, wake up.” Shiro shouted, trying to get the attention of the lady Giant.

“The crystal must have corrupted King Alfor’s artificial intelligence. It’s taking over!” There was a flash of bright light from the screens that made up the walls of the room. Cade had no idea what any of them was talking about, but he knew that he was allowed to feel afraid. There was a large ball of fire in the inky black of the sky, and it seemed they were going right at it.

“We’re heading straight for that star, and it’s about to explode!”

That didn’t sound good. Cade found himself gripping at his sword and nervously stroking the head of one of the mice. They all were shouting to get her attention. Cade’s heart couldn’t take it much longer. He secured his hook in a small indent in the housing and scaled his way down to the floor. Luckily, nobody saw him so he was still in the clear.

The mice stayed up on the console, chittering nervously to Cade from where he was on the ground. “Sorry guys.” Cade’s voice was lost over the Giant’s shouting, but he kept talking anyway. “I don't think my anxiety can take being exposed up there.”

He had had his eyes on a vent somewhere on the floor, but he knew he probably shouldn’t just run off. Shiro might come looking for him later, and he might be mad he left. For now he could just stay here by the base of the console where he couldn’t be seen by everyone.

“I’ve got to get to the A.I Chamber to disconnect the power source manually.” The voice of the Lady Giant rang out.

“But that would mean losing Alfor forever.” One of the others protested.

“Paladins, get to your lions! I need you to slow the castle’s descent into the star.” She continued. “I can try to override the system to open the hangars.” Cade saw the older Giant with the facial hair go to a console, and he heard the footsteps of the others going out of the room.

He glanced around with a mixture of fear and rising fascination. The rooms he never really got to look at from the floor, and this was a new one. It looked like some kind of control room.

Cade was worried, as he always was, but he was able to push those thoughts aside and wait patiently by the base of the console. He saw the huge feline robots try to slow the Castle’s descent into the ‘star.’ He saw the remaining Giant in the control room regain control and the castle disappear through a large, swirling vortex. He was also there when the other Giants came back into the room.

Cade’s blood froze and his heart skipped a beat when the shorter one who was always carrying weapon’s eyes locked directly onto him.

_Shiro, where are you?!_


	9. Chapter 9

Cade’s heart was pounding in his chest. He was staring up at the Giant, who was staring right back. Some of the others were speaking, but he wasn’t paying attention. He dryly swallowed, staying as still as he could, hoping that he would somehow get out of this.

It would seem that things didn’t want to go Cade’s way. The Giant took several steps towards him, closing the vast distance in seconds. Cade bolted, trying to get away, but he was just not fast enough.

A gloved hand fell in front of him as the Giant crouched and he tried to switch directions. Fingers wrapped around his legs and he fell to the ground. He hardly had time to register the grip on his leg before he felt a sharp pain and he felt something shift out of place as he was yanked into the air.

He was lifted up in front of purple eyes that were boring into him. He tried to move around so he could get a better view on where he felt the pain in his hip, but his ribs were screaming at him, so he gave up, going limp.

“Did you drop something, Keith?”

“Uh, no. Just thought I saw something.” Cade fell as the pinch grip on his leg vanish. He hit the broad surface of a palm, crying out as he landed awkwardly on his bed leg, hardly being able to process anything before a second hand settled on top of him, effectively trapping him in a living cage.

\------------------

Shiro walked back into the control room, his mind scattered from everything that was happening so fast. He came in, Allura was sitting on her control station’s pad, head in her hands, exhausted. Coran was the only other one there, at his own control station. “Where are the others?”

“They went off towards the dining quarters, well, all but Keith. He said something about something I didn’t hear and left for his room.” Coran muttered, waving his hand towards the door.

Shiro would join the others and check on Keith in a second. Allura looked distressed. He sat down next to her, helmet in his hands. After a moment of sitting there, he decided to break the silence. “I’m so sorry about your father, princess.”

She looked at him. “Thank you. But that was not my father. The real King Alfor was a great man and a great father. He may not be with us anymore, but I take comfort in knowing I am able to help his legacy live on.”

“Okay. I’m going to go see what’s up with the others.” He stood up, the Mice were chittering rapidly from the control console, trying to get his attention. “Oh. Hey guys, what’s up?” They continued chittering, and something dawned on the exhausted young man. Cade was missing. He leaned down, and whispered to them, “Where’s Cade?”

They chittered, and one of them started sulking in a familiar pose. “Is that Keith?” They nodded, then the yellow one snatched up the small green one in its paws who started squeaking and thrashing. “Keith took Cade?” They nodded frantically.

That must be why he turned in early for the night. He had seen and snatched up Cade. The number of ways that could end up badly flashed through his head. “Crap. He could get hurt...or worse. I got to go help him.” The mice scrambled onto his outstretched hands, he stood up quickly and rushed off to get to the the sleeping quarters and help his four-inch tall friend.

\-------------------

Cade was panicking as he looked at his dark surroundings. “Hands.” He muttered, pushing against the firm walls around him. “Dammit!”

_Why did I go with Shiro? I knew this would happen._ He chastised himself. _This was a horrible idea, and it would never work. I knew this would happen._

“You sure buddy? You look alright to me.” One of the other Giants asked, voices still clear and rumbling through the thick walls of flesh that were pressing in on him.

It was hard to describe everything that Cade was feeling. Primal fear, but also anger, raging anger at himself, at the Giant that was holding him, at all the Giants too, at his fears, at his own helplessness. Also, he felt sick, incredibly sick. The pain, the nausea, the rough swaying, his whirlwind of emotion, everything was making him incredibly sick.

“I’m more exhausted than, uh, hungry. ” His already cramped surroundings closed in further on him. The pressure on his injured leg increased and he could hardly cry out. He was shaking. He was afraid, he was afraid that this was how he was going to die.

“Okay then, if you say so.”

His limbs were shaking from nerves, but he felt so hot from the surrounding heat, his body was screaming his many injuries at him. His bag was crushed into his back, and his arms were stuck at awkward angles. Suddenly, the grip around him loosened, and he was dumped onto a hard surface.

_Oowwww._

He laid on the cool surface for a moment, whispering thanks. Then he sat up, injuries protesting. He took in his surroundings, he was inside the den of the Giant that captured him, on the table against one of the walls. The Giant that had captured him was sitting on a stool in front of him, his purple eyes boring into him.

Cade was terrified. Terrified of the uncertainty of the scenario. He had no clue what this one was going to do to him. Where was Shiro? He’d never wanted so badly to see the enormous, muscle bound Giant as he did then. At least then he would have a fighting chance.

“What are you?” He reached out, and Cade tried to move, but his injured leg wasn’t responding. He grabbed his sword handle, but in his hesitation, those fingers were now upon him. He tried to flinch away from his grasping fingers, but there was nowhere to go, he was surrounded.

“Stop!” Shiro’s voice rang out. Cade, as well as the Giant that had his hand around Cade, froze. Cade glanced towards where the voice came from. Shiro was standing in the doorway, the mice were with him. He wanted to cry out of relief.

\---------------

Shiro was standing in the doorway, the mice riding on his shoulders, his heart feeling like it was being twirled around a fork. Keith’s hand was wrapped around Cade’s vulnerable body. “Keith, back away from him, now.” He said in a stern voice.

He released the tiny person and moved his hand back, and Shiro rushed forward. The mice scrambled down his arms and surrounded the young man, growling at the confused Red Paladin. “Cade, are you okay?” He asked gently.

Cade started to nod, but he stopped. He shook his head. “No, something’s wrong with my leg.”

“You know him?” Keith looked at his older brother. 

“His name is Cade.” Shiro corrected over his shoulder. He crouched down to get a better look at the little guy’s injuries. “What happened?”

“He grabbed me by my leg and dangled me upside down.” Cade was glaring at his captor, but considering their height difference and the tremor that was going through his tiny body, it wasn’t too effective. “I can’t move my leg.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think that anyone would get their hands on you before I could say something.” Shiro said apologetically as he carefully put his hands close to Cade. “I’m so, so sorry.” His inner voices were telling him how this was all his fault.

\---------------

Cade flinched away from his hands, but he stopped.

_He’s not trying to hurt you. He’s not trying to hurt you. This one is nice, he’s not going to hurt you._

Repeating that over a few times in his head, he let Shiro look over him. His fingers never touched Cade, who was grateful, but suddenly he pulled away and rounded on the smaller giant. “Why would you do that to him?! He’s smaller than your freaking hand!”

Cade’s eyes widened. Shiro hardly ever shouted, and he seemed to be closest to this one. He was surprised at him.

He seemed to be in equal surprise to Shiro yelling. “Shiro, I didn’t mean to-”

“He’s four inches tall, Keith! You should have known better! You could have killed him!”

This smaller giant’s, this ‘Keith’s’ shoulders slumped and and he guiltily looked at the floor. Cade tried to stand up, say something, stop him from yelling, but his vision swam in and out of focus, darkening. He hardly even got to his feet before he was falling, one of the mice catching him as he slumped across its back.


	10. Chapter 10

Keith stood there and silently took Shiro’s rapidly dissipating anger. Keith glanced off to the side, and suddenly his eyes widened. He was looking behind Shiro, at the desk, where Cade was recovering. “Shiro!” He hissed suddenly.

“What?” He asked as he turned, trying to see what Keith saw. Cade was unconscious on the desk, slumped across the back of the yellow mouse. Shiro swiftly stepped over to the desk, looking to the mice for answers. “What happened?” Why was he unconscious? What had happened?

Keith was watching a step behind Shiro’s side. Shiro carefully reached out with his left hand, barely touching the minuscule man’s arm. “Cade.” He tried to rouse the small man to no avail. “Cade!”

The mice pulled his hand against the table and one of them flipped it over. The yellow mouse gently let Cade roll into Shiro’s palm, barking orders to him in an animalian language he had no hope of understanding.

Shiro had no idea what they were trying to get him to do, but he did know that Cade was unconscious, and injured, and now he was in his palm. He had to do something, there had to be something he could do to help.

“What do we do?” Keith asked quietly.

“I...I don’t know.” He admitted. “He’s never been unconscious before. I don’t know what to do when someone’s passed out, I’m not a medic.”

“The mice seem to know something.” Keith pointed out.

“I can’t understand them….but, Allura can.” He carefully lifted his hand off the table and held his hand close to his chest. “Maybe she could translate for them?”

“I guess.” Keith’s voice was quiet. He normally did this when he was upset. “It couldn’t hurt, right?”

Shiro knew the guilty look on Keith’s face. He shouldn’t have raised his voice, and he would make it up to his little brother later, but right now Cade was hurt. He would have to help him first. He carefully gathered up the mice with his other arm and then set off to find Allura. Keith was a few steps behind.

\---------------

Keith wanted to make it up to Shiro, and to the small man, Cade. He hadn’t meant to hurt him when he’d found him, he was just on edge. He’d not been able to trust even the castle that day, and suddenly finding a small creature on the floor that looked too human for comfort had his thinking off. He’d just grabbed, and he guessed he’d hurt him.

A thing so small had to be so fragile. Shiro’s scoldings were ringing through his head.

_You could have killed him!_

A sudden thought occurred to him. What if he had? It wasn’t like they could check for a pulse. He was too small. He doubted their comparatively thick skin would register the movement. He could be dead for all they knew, and it was all Keith’s fault.

What if when he had been holding him, he’d squeezed him too hard? He had readjusted his grip on the little guy a few times to keep him from squirming, and he might have broken something when he had been between his hands.

He might have just killed an innocent creature. He felt like a monster. There had to be something he could do to fix this. Something.

\-------------------

Shiro made it to the bridge, Cade still hadn’t moved. He was trying to stay calm, for everyone’s sake. Allura wasn’t there, but Coran was. “Coran.” He said to his back. “Do you know where Allura is?”

“I managed to convince her to get some sleep, she should be in her quarters. Do you need something?” He turned around, eyebrow raised. His eyes locked onto Cade after a moment. “You found a Little?” He stepped over quickly. “He’s hurt.”

“Which is why we need to talk to Allura. Wait-he’s a what?” Shiro processed the first part of his sentence halfway through speaking.

“A Little.” Coran looked concerned as he saw Cade passed out in Shiro’s palm. “They were very common on Altean ships ten thousand years ago. A lot of people saw them as pests or lesser beings, but they’re just like you or me. I had thought they had gone extinct with the destruction of Altean fleets, but I guess I was wrong.” He shook his head. “Did you do this to him?”

“No-no. I didn’t-”

“I did.” Keith spoke up. “It’s my fault.”

“Keith, I’m surprised at you.” Coran gently scolded. “You should know better than to hurt something defenseless.”

“No, it’s not his fault.” Shiro interjected. “He didn’t know any better. What’s important right now is Cade. He’s hurt, and the mice know what happened, but we can’t understand them.”

“You don’t need to bother Allura for this, he needs medical attention, the mice’s testimony isn’t that important, but their size is needed. Come with me to the medical bay.” Coran gestured for them to follow him. “Come on, he’s injured.”

In the medical bay, Coran had taken Cade from Shiro’s hands and carefully set him on an examination table. He carefully instructed the mice as he looked over him, nimble fingers gently brushing over his minuscule features. Keith and Shiro worriedly looked over his shoulders.

“Yes, uh-huh set them over there, be careful undoing the knot, don’t rip it, he’s probably only got the one...oh my.” Coran softly gasped.

“What?” Shiro spoke up. “Oh my what? What’s wrong with him?”

Coran straightened. “I can’t work with you two hovering behind me. This requires a lot of concentration. Get out.” He pointed to the door.

“But-”

“Get out.” He firmly repeated. “I need to pop his leg back in its socket, it’s been mildly dislocated, and it takes a lot of concentration to do properly. He doesn’t need to limp.”

“But is he going to be okay?”

“He’s breathing, and it will stay that way. Despite being one of the smallest races of the galaxy, they are sturdy. Now, will you please leave. I will call you both when I am finished, but, please, I need some silence.”

The two of them left. Shiro and Keith stood in the hallway and then at the same time they almost collapsed against the wall. “I dislocated his leg.” Keith muttered. “I picked him up wrong and I dislocated his leg.”

“It’s not your fault, Keith. You didn’t know. I should have said something, I should have told someone that Cade was here, this never would have happened if I had just said something.”

They stood there for a moment, in silence, before Keith spoke again. “So, how did you meet Cade?”

“I picked up some of his stuff in the lounge the other day, I had no idea what it was, so I pocketed it and forgot it. That night he came into my room from the vents to get it back. I caught him and I think I bruised his ribs when I first grabbed him.”

“Looks like we both screwed up our first impressions with the little guy.” Keith muttered as he looked at his hands.

“You can say that again.” Shiro looked at his metal arm. “No wonder we looked like monsters to them.”

“Them?”

“There used to be more of his people on the ship, but they all evacuated before we left Arus. They decided we were too dangerous to live this close to, so they left.”

“Where are they now?”

“I have no idea, and I don’t know if Cade would trust us with that information.” Shiro admitted. “We’ve not done a lot to gain his trust.”

\-----------------

Several minutes passed before Coran left the med bay without his gloves. “He’ll be fine.” He told the two humans. “We’re monitoring him, he’s healing.”

“Can I see him?” Shiro asked.

Coran nodded and lead them back into the med bay. “Hunk, Pidge, and I have been working on a project for a while now. It was originally Hunk’s idea but it really helped us out in this instance.” There was a perfect miniature replica of a cryopod on the main counter. “We’ve tested it before, of course.”

“A tiny cryopod?”

“Yes, Hunk had brought up the possibilities of the mice getting injured, and we don’t want that so we had focused on compacting the cryopod’s technology to something for suited for their scale. It would work on anything that could fit in it, Cade included.”

“So, he’ll be okay?”

“Yes, yes, of course.” Coran nodded. “It’s going to take a little while, but he’ll be perfectly fine. In the meantime, you two could explain to me how you came to find him, and why he was so injured when I saw him.” The two of them cringed inwardly as he raised an accusing eyebrow at them.


	11. Chapter 11

“Start from the beginning.” Coran said gently.

Shiro sighed and started with his side of the story. “The other day I was in the lounge, before we got called in for Rolo’s distress beacon, and I saw something in the floor. I went to go pick it up and it was some of Cade’s stuff. His sword, an old belt of his, and one of his bags.” He rubbed his arm. “You called me and I put it in my pocket and forgot about it. That night, after I had gone to bed, I saw Cade looking through my stuff to get it back. I grabbed him.”

“What did you do with him afterwards?”

“I asked him some questions.”

“What did you find out?”

“His name and I found out there used to be others here in the castle. We kind of drove them out, though. They thought it was too dangerous to be around big things like us.” Shiro was looking at the floor. “We were too dangerous to be around. They were right. I couldn’t even pick him up without hurting him.”

“You hurt him?”

Shiro nodded. “When I let him go, and he took off, he was hurt. I think I did something to his ribs. I heard him yell when he hid in the vent.”

“You didn’t know any better.” Coran put his hand on his shoulder. “My first encounter with their kind wasn’t very elegant either.” There were a few minutes of silence after Coran took his hand away. “I think we should inform the others of our smallest resident of the ship.”

“Are you sure?” Keith asked. “We don’t know how they’ll react to this.”

“It would stop any more accidents with him if everyone was aware of him. There wouldn’t be any more accidental injuries.”

“Coran’s right. If we had known, we wouldn’t have been so quick to grab him.”

\----------------------------

Everyone looked up when Keith and Shiro were led into the dining room by Coran. They looked guilty with their heads down. Hunk looked between the three of them with concern. “Everything alright?” He asked.

“We need to talk.” Shiro said as he sat down at the head of the table. “There seems to be more people on this ship than we originally thought.”

“What do you mean?” Hunk asked after he set down the plates he was carrying.

“Uh, Coran?”

He stepped in for Shiro. “There seems to be a Little onboard.”

“What’s a Little?” Lance asked.

“They’re like tiny people.” Shiro explained. “You know about Borrowers?”

“A little bit. They like live in the walls and stuff, right?”

“That’s pretty much what a Little is.”

“A space Borrower?” Pidge perked up. “Cool!”

“No, not cool. It’s dangerous for him to be around us. Keith and I both figured that out the hard way.”

Hunk furrowed his brow. “What happened?”

Shiro and Keith explained everything that happened since Cade was first discovered in Shiro’s room. They talked about the accidental theft of Cade’s items, his attempt to get them back, Shiro accidentally hurting him, the offer to help Cade, and Keith hurting him when he captured him.

“That’s not your fault though.” Lance said.

“But it is.” Keith insisted, jumping to his feet. “I should have known better. I could have crippled him.”

\-------------------------

Shiro was waiting around in the infirmary, waiting for Cade to emerge from the cryopod. He was almost fully healed. Sometime within the hour was when he was due to emerge from the pod. Everyone had agreed that Shiro should be present, as Cade seemed to be least afraid of him.

Shiro kept looking at the small cryopod, and he still felt a little guilty. He should have handled the situation better.

He heard a knock at the door. He opened the door and Keith was standing there. “Shiro?”

“What is it Keith?”

“I wanted to say sorry.” He apologized. “I should have waited. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not mad.” Shiro said. “But, I’m not the person you need to be apologizing to.”

“I know, I just wanted to practice.” Keith sighed. “I don’t know how to talk to him.”

Shiro put his hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright. You have time to think of something, but if you want a suggestion?” Keith nodded. “If you want my suggestion, I think you need to show Cade that you’re sorry. When you’re talking to someone who can fit in your hand, words can sound pretty weak. You need to show him that he can trust you.”

“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.”

\---------------------

Cade felt cold. He couldn’t move much. His head felt fuzzy.

_Am I dead?_

The notion was a bit absurd. He couldn’t be dead, right? Were dead people aware of the fact that they were dead?

He felt warmth start at his feet and move up his legs and towards his face. He heard a faint whooshing noise. He became aware of the fact that he was standing. If anything, that confirmed the fact he wasn’t dead. Dead people couldn’t stand.

He opened his eyes. He was was in a small chamber, just something big enough for him to stand in. He saw light streaming through the opening. He stepped out and stumbled as the floor was a bit lower than he originally thought it was. He caught himself on the edge of the opening and blinked at the light.

He was in the infirmary for the humans. He was on top of one of the counters. Shiro was leaning against the counter, back to him. “Shiro?” Cade tiredly shouted up at him.

Shiro turned around, a smile tugging at his lips. “Hey Cade. How are you feeling?”

Cade took stock. Looking down at himself, he saw his belt, his shoes, and all of his gear wasn’t with him. Cade ran a hand down his face to wake himself up a bit. His leg wasn’t hurting, and his ribs didn’t ache when he took a deep breath. That was one good thing. “Uh, I don’t hurt.”

“That’s good.” Shiro nodded.

“What did you do to me?” He looked behind him at the contraption he had been in until now. “What is that thing?”

“That’s a cryopod.” Shiro explained. “It’s an Altean machine that heals people.”

“Altean?” He knew that word. Perhaps it was something from his childhood.

“Alteans are the alien race that built this place.” Shiro gestured around them to the ship. “They built the lions, the castle and everything in it.”

Realization dawned on him. “Oh, Alteans.” He nodded to himself. Something in the old stories about the castle’s origins mentioned them, but he guessed that wasn’t important right now. He cleared his throat and spoke up again. “Where’s my stuff?”

“Oh, it’s,” Shiro quickly glanced around, “Right over there.” He carefully gathered up the items from where they were lying and he handed them over to Cade. “Here.”

“Thank you.” Cade told him and then he started to organize his stuff. He had just finished tying the knot on the belt, when he was almost knocked right off his feet. The mice were surrounding him, begging for attention. “Hey guys!” He patted their heads and scratched behind their ears.

“The mice really seem to like you.” Shiro had a ghost of a smile on his lips.

Cade patted the big yellow mouse on the head. “I guess so.” The smaller green mouse kept nudging at his arm for attention. He was having a bit of trouble tying his sheath back to his belt with the mice all clambering for his attention. “I’m fine!” He huffed as he tried to gently shove the pink mouse away. “Get off.”

“Can I help?” Shiro looked down at Cade.

“Please.” He gestured to them.

“Come ‘ere guys. Leave him alone.” Shiro carefully picked up the mice, scooping them up in his hands. Cade had gone stiff when his hands had been very near, but he was able to relax as soon as his hands were away. “He needs his space.”

“Thank you Shiro.”

“No problem.” Cade was able to get all of his gear in order relatively quickly. He felt a lot better with the familiar bag secured to his back and his weapon secured on his belt. He was a little more ready to tackle the problem in front of him. “Cade? Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m not hurting.”

“I’m talking mentally. Are you alright? You did go through a lot with Keith and all.” Cade felt phantom pains in his leg.

“I’ll be alright...I just think….I need a little space.” Cade carefully chose his words. He wasn’t particularly afraid of Shiro, but he was still unsure of how he should handle this situation. “I think I need some time to let my, uhm, my nerves unwind a bit. I should probably go.” He gestured to one of the vents.

Shiro nodded. “Right, you probably do need some space.” He rubbed his arm. “Do you want me to help you anywhere or do you want to get there on your own?”

Cade located the vents in the room. They were either too high up for his grappling hook to reach or all the way across the room, where he would have to walk for too long to get to it, and his limbs, even without pain, felt oddly heavy and his head felt fuzzy. “Could you help me to that vent?” He pointed out the right one.

“Sure.” He carefully laid his flesh hand on the countertop, a little bit away from Cade. The last thing Shiro wanted to do was potentially injure the little guy. “Climb on.”

“Thank you.” Cade remembered his manners. He carefully hopped up onto Shiro’s palm and Shiro carefully escorted him over to his desired vent.

“I’ll tell the others you wanted some space. They shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

Cade felt a cold shock run up his spine. “They know about me?”

“They know you’re on the ship, but they won’t try to find you. I made sure of it.”

Not entirely assured, Cade thanked him once more for the lift and then he disappeared into the walls. He was heading for his temporary home within the walls so he could rest and mentally recover from everything that had just happened to him.


	12. Chapter 12

Cade pushed aside a loose flap of metal inside the ventilation that let him access his temporary home. It wasn’t much. Whatever had remained of his old bed he had taken a whole day to transport it to this little hollow in the wall. It was mostly the sheets and the bedding in a nest formation.

He dropped his bags and he untied his belt from around him. Now that he was just in his light grey clothing and boots he just flopped onto the nest of bedding. He buried his face in the cloth and he enjoyed the familiar scent.

For the first time in days he could take a deep breath without any pain. As much panic as his second capture caused him, it was worth it to be able to sprint and climb again with minimal pain.

He could have dropped off to sleep if it wasn’t for his stomach complaining about how it was empty every five minutes. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He groaned. When he was in the kitchen, which seemed like forever ago, he hadn’t gotten more than a taste of the food before everything went to shit.

Cade rolled onto his back and he stared up at the top of the hollow. Was it worth it going right back out there after he’d just safely gotten back to the place where he had called home? His pining stomach told him it was.

He sat up and he pulled his large back towards him. He would have to have something to store the food in as his pantry couldn’t even be used for kindling at this point, even if he tracked down all the pieces. He pulled out the thick paper and the sharp stone that substituted for a knife. He wasn’t sure where his actual knife was anymore.

After a few minutes of him working in the very dim light, measuring, cutting, and folding, he has a few containers he could store perishables in, and more manageable strips of paper for him to wrap anything he couldn’t store in.

Cade grabbed his belt, tying it back along his waist. He made sure his sword was ready for use and he put his rations bag over his shoulder, carefully stacking the containers and the wrappings inside. He pulled his climbing rope out of his other bag and he hooked it onto his belt, securing the hook in its space that wouldn’t let it get tangled. After looking back over himself to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything -his map, he had to grab his map- he set out to go get himself some food.

He left his hollow and disappeared back into the vents. He kept his ears open and he kept his hand on his sword. He knew that they knew he was there. Shiro had said they wouldn’t look for him, but giants were curious, and they were grabby. His leg twinged at the memory. He was grateful he didn’t come out from that with a limp, or worse.

Focusing on the task at hand, he pulled out the map and looked over it as he leaned on one of the corners. He should go fill up his canteens on the way to the kitchen. He would get there later, a greater chance of them being asleep. Or it would be earlier to their rising time and there would be a greater chance of being seen by the early risers. He wasn’t sure of the time.

He decided to go fill up his canteens first.

Cade made his way to the leaky pipe that he used as a kind of checkpoint between his old house and the giant’s rooms. It steadily dripped clean water, something it hadn’t done before the giants woke up. If there was one thing that them invading the castle made easier it was getting water. His trips could go much longer, as his rations were the main limiting factor before.

Once his canteens were filled and safely tucked back into his bag, he checked his maps again and then he headed off for the kitchens, and this time he would be using a different entry way. He felt like using the vents to enter rooms was now cursed so he had to use a different way to enter.

It took him much longer to get out into the room, but he would be more cautious entering. When he was entering from a loose panel near the top of the counter, he was able to hear if anyone was clattering around in the kitchen. He didn’t hear anyone clanging around pots and pans, but he was still cautious entering.

He observed the monolithic room from behind a container. There wasn’t anyone in the room, but there was signs that someone had recently been in there. There was still pots and pans on the stove, and there were crumbs and spills on the countertop. He’d have to be careful to not step in anything. He didn’t want to get his boots dirty or to leave any footprints.

The smells that lingered in the air made his stomach roughly remind him why he was there. He shook his head and he started scouting for anything edible. He had climbed up on something to get a better look when he heard squeaking.

He looked around and saw the mice sitting on the counter in the middle of the kitchen. One of them looked up and spotted him, squeaking happily. The others looked up and they saw him as well. He spotted food sitting on a small plate between all of them and decided maybe he could go and grab some from them if they didn’t mind sharing.

He hopped down onto the countertop and he pulled the hook out of his belt. Finding a good anchor point, he secured his hook and tossed the rest of the rope down the sheer drop. He climbed down the rope, sliding a good portion of the way down to the floor. He flicked the rope and the hook fell down. Cade caught it before it hit the floor and dashed to the other counter. He managed to throw the hook up to the counter, and he had to maneuver the string to get the hook to snag on the countertop.

He pulled the string taut and then he climbed quickly up the rope. Within moments, he was at the top of the countertop. He left the hook where it was so he could go as quickly as he needed to.

The mice surrounded him, nudging at him again. “Off, off!” He lightly shoved at them. They were always so excited around him. “Hey, don’t mind to intrude on your supper, or breakfast, whichever, but mind sparing some food?”

The two small ones ran over to the plate, and the two bigger ones nudged Cade towards the plate.

“Okay, okay. I’m coming, no need to go crazy. You’ll attract someone’s attention like that.” He could clearly see the closed doors that led towards the dining hall. It was the source of the noises that he and the mice weren’t making. The giants had to be in there.

The plate had several things on it. Some of the green goo stuff, and other things he wasn’t too familiar with. Most were plant based, definitely plant based, but one looked like it was made of meat. He’d avoid that one for now, but the rest he was going to pack away.

\----------------

Hunk and Coran were clearing plates as the others were chatting, making plans, telling jokes, whatever. Coran had taken the plates from Hunk, insisting he sit down. He had cooked dinner, he shouldn’t be the one to clean up.

“But, who’s gonna do it then?” He went to take the plates back.

“I told you all about the chart.” He gestured with a stack of plates to the chart that was on the wall. “Whoever’s under dishwashing, it’s their turn to do the dishes.”

“It’s Keith’s turn.” Hunk observed.

“My turn for what?” He looked up, a bewildered look on his face.

“Dish duty.” Croan handed him the plates. “Off you pop.”

Keith stood up and went into to kitchen, plates in hand. “Hey guys.” He mumbled to the space mice as he set the plates in the sink. “Dish duty. Looks like I’m stuck in here until I can clean up.”

He turned to them and shrugged off his jacket. “Hope it doesn’t take-” He froze. Cade was frozen on the island, food in hand as he stared up at Keith with sheer terror in his blue eyes. “Hey.”

Cade slowly put the bit of the space mice’s food down. “Hey, uhm. Guess that, uhm dinner’s finished?”

“Yeah.” He carefully walked forward set his jacket on the relatively clean kitchen island and Cade stumbled back in fear. “Uhm,” He paused, trying to not scare him back into hiding, “About yesterday...I just want to say that I’m sorry...for everything.”

“O-oh?”

“I should have known better than to grab and to be gentler in handling you. It’s all my fault and I should have been thinking.” He stared down at his hands, then put them in his pockets. “I’m really sorry.”

“It-it’s fine. You’re a giant, they just grab.” The tiny blond man laughed nervously. “All giants are grabby. It could have been a lot worse.”

“I’m still sorry.” He sighed. “If you need anything while I’m here, ask or something. I’ll help if I can.”

“Thank you, really, but, I should probably get going.” He stuffed something Keith couldn’t quite see into his bag and approached a hook that was wedged into the counter as Keith backed up, jacket still over one arm.

He curiously watched Cade shimmy down a strong attached to the hook. Keith was impressed. The little guy was on a rope suspended at would seem to him several stories up the air.

Keith carefully stepped back to the sink, tying the jacket around his waist and putting the gloves in his pocket. He kept a careful eye on where Cade was getting close to the floor.

The last thing he needed was to accidentally step on him.

He busied himself washing the dishes. He was aware when a tiny hook flew up and got caught in a chink in the metal of the counter a foot away from where he was cleaning. Keith was impressed with how quickly he was able to climb up and down.

He watched out of the corner of his eyes as Cade started to climb up, running the sponge over the same spot on the same plate while Cade made quick work of scrambling up the rope. It was mesmerizing to see the little limbs working in perfect unison to haul their owner into the air.

Suddenly, as he neared the top, Cade was reaching up to the counter when his feet slipped. The hook wiggled in its shallow indentation and Keith tensed. Cade slid a few inches downwards, but he tightly clung to the rope until he was able to get a grip again.

After the moment passed, Keith let out the breath he was holding. “Are you okay?” He fully turned, water still running, to look at him.

“Yeah.” He slowly climbed back up the few inches he lost. “I got it.”

He got one hand up on the counter and was repositioning his legs when the shaking of the rope finally made the hook slip out of its little nook. The hook popped back and got Cade in the face before the two of them plummeted towards the floor.

Keith dove for the little guy, dropping the sponge and plate while nearly smashing his own face against the counter as he dropped to catch him before he hit the floor.

Cade landed in his soaked hands and he curled his hands around him as his knees slammed into the floor, sending a tiny bolt of pain up his thighs. He was frozen for a long minute, processing what just happened, making sure nothing else was falling, then he slowly unfolded his fingers.

\-------------

Cade thought it had been all over when the young giant approached the counter, rambling some apology. Luckily, he hadn’t done anything other than back up and let Cade stutter back some kind of apology accepted.

Cade slid to the floor, keeping an eye on him the whole time. He stopped at the base of the counter and stayed there until he settled at the sink, picking up a plate and turning on the rumbling water. There as the clinking of porcelain on metal, and he took it as the giant being busy.

He dashed across the open space between the counters and flung his hook up as hard as it could. It clattered up onto the surface, and then with some finagling managed to get it into the little crack up there. He made sure it would slip and then started his climb.

As he got about halfway up, he became aware of purple eyes staring at him. He ignored it and kept climbing. Once he got to the top, his boot slipped from the rope, and his arms and core weren't prepared for the extra strain and it wiggled the rope as he slid. He had felt the hook slip a little as he secured his feet again.

There was the rush of the giant’s breath, then he spoke. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He would have to go slow or the hook would come undone. “I got it.”

He was back at the top, and he was reaching for the counter. If he could get a grip, it’d probably be okay.

As he finally got one hand up, he oh so barely nudged the hook and it violently came out of its anchor point. His eyes scrunched tight as the metal hit him across the face and his stomach crammed itself into his throat as he fell.

Cade could hardly shout before wet hands encased him and closed around him. His heart pounded in every inch of his body as he carefully felt down his limbs for any damage. He didn't feel anything other than a jolt before everything went skill.

Cade was trying to convince himself he could push against these hands that water was clinging to and he wouldn’t be squished between them.

The fingers surrounding him slowly unfurled and he could see the giant’s face staring down at him, etched with concern and worry. “A-are you okay?” He asked, biting at his lip.

Cade nodded and sat up, suddenly aware that his clothes were varying from dry to damp to wet with the warm water that was covering the hand he was sitting on. “Thank-” He had to clear his throat. His voice was a lot higher than it needed to be. “Thank you.”

“Err, no problem.” He carefully shifted and slid Cade to the countertop. Cade was still trembling from the excess adrenaline. The giant's huge eyes glanced around and then his head ducked down under the counter. He came up with his climbing rope, the rope pinched between two fingers. “Here, this is yours.”

“Thank you.” He took it and slowly picked himself up. “I’ll be going now.” He couldn’t pull his feet from the spot. Something was nagging in his mind.

“You stuck?” His eyebrows shot up.

“Nope.” He lifted one foot. “I just, uhm, don’t know your name.”

“Oh.” He cleared his throat. “It’s Keith. Keith Kogane.”

“Well, thank you for the save, Keith Kogane.” He gave him a two fingered salute. “I’ll, uhm, be seeing you around.” He rushed off to the hollow in the walls so he could change clothes before the water evaporated and left him shaking.


	13. Chapter 13

Cade was scoping out the rooms, looking for some supplies now that he had some food stored away that should last him a little while. If he played it safe, and did some more careful observations on the giants, he could probably snatch some more food from the mice without getting caught. 

He was in the vents, near a light, muttering to himself as he looked over his maps. He was near the rooms of the giants, near the room to the left of Keith's. It currently was labeled 'Blue eyed giant.' 

He should really learn their names at some point. If he ever caught Shiro at a good time and had the courage, he would ask. Until then, he was going on physical traits he'd observed. 'Blue eyed giant,' 'Smaller giant with glasses,' 'Big yellow giant,' 'Lady giant,' and 'Older mustachioed giant.' 

He rubbed a hand over his near invisible blond stubble as he looked over his maps. If he could get some alone time near a mirror he'd shave, until then he just couldn't. It wasn't like there was anyone to notice it anyways. It was too small for the giants to see and there wasn't anyone near his size around to judge him. 

If he ever got a full on beard....he'd figure out what to do after someone pointed it out. Probably shave it or something. 

He decided after a while to go check out the blue eyed giant's room. He always had something in there he could make off with. The giant that lived there wasn't the cleanest, but he were by no means the messiest. 

That title belonged to the smallest one. They were incredibly messy, and Cade avoided digging through their stuff because he was afraid of what he'd find. 

He adjusted his bags and got ready for the trip out there. He was close enough to the vent covering, he just had to make sure the room was empty. 

Cade listened and waited. He couldn't hear anything, so he stepped closer and looked. The room was empty, perfect for a little bit of floor scavenging. 

He didn't want to go up on the bed or the dresser if he could help it. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck in the air on a surface again. 

Cade was looking around for supplies. He saw an abandoned piece of pencil lead. He scooped it up and stuffed it into his bag. If the charcoal stick he had broke, then he'd use this. 

He was looking around, and he caught sight of some dark blue thread. Just a couple shades darker than the fabric he was using in his belt. Very nice. He'd used part of the black thread to hem his belt. This he could break down and weave into his belt to thicken and darken it. It was coiled up and stuffed in his bag

Cade was continuing to look when he saw some paper, crushed into a ball, just hanging out by the other wall. 

More paper. Very nice. He could definitely use it. The paper from the note had been used for the containers he currently has filled with food. 

This stuff could be used for so much. It was actually quite therapeutic to fold. Cade dashed across the floor and he made it to the other side quickly. The paper ball got a swift kick and it was sent flying back in the direction of the vent. 

He'd meant to kick it to the wall between him and the vents, but things didn't really go to plan. It landed in the middle of the open floor. 

Sighing, Cade dashed out and grabbed an edge that was sticking out. He proceeded to drag it across the floor.

He'd hardly made it a full foot when he heard someone approaching from the outside hall. 

His heart started pounding, and his legs had frozen with indecision. He wanted this paper really bad, but he didn't want to be caught. 

He couldn't make up his mind in time, as the door opened and he saw the blue eyed giant walk in, hands in his jacket pockets. 

\----------------

Lance had come into his room to take a breather. He was just pretty tired from training earlier that day. A bit of movement caught his eye. He saw a tiny man on the floor, dragging one of his paper balls that hadn’t quite made it into the trash can.

He paused, and he saw the man pause. He took a moment to look at the small blond person. Coran had been right when he had been explaining the Littles to them. They were just like people, only tiner.

Lance carefully sat down so he wasn’t looming as much. He didn’t want to frighten him anymore by walking around while he was on the floor. Now that he had actually looked at Cade, he realized just how huge that he would look to someone so small. They would have to look like some kind of living skyscraper.

“Hey.” He greeted.

Cade looked between Lance and then down at the crumpled paper he was dragging, and he sprung back from it. “Hi.” He put his hands behind his back. “I was just...uhm...I’ll be leaving that and I’ll get out of you way.”

“You can have paper if you want it.” Lance informed him with an easy smile. “I got plenty. When I was poking through the storage closets, I found some Altean Stationary that had been in a airtight crate, so it was still good after ten thousand years.”

Cade tilted his head. “The storage closet between the kitchens and the bedrooms?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. What? You take things from there too?”

Cade took a step back. “It was before I knew anybody owned this place. I thought that it was fair game.”

“It’s alright. I asked Coran about it. He said that it’s our home too, so as long as we didn’t break anything else, it was alright.”

“Good to know.” Cade stood beside the paper ball. “Say, would you mind telling me where you found the stationary? In relation to the shelves?”

Lance rubbed his neck. “I kind of took the whole case, but I can get you some more, How many sheets do you need?” He leaned over to the desk and opened the bottom drawer where he’d stashed the paper. “One or two?”

“Just one.”

Lance pulled out a piece of the paper and shut the drawer, handing it to Cade. “Here.” Cade carefully took the edge of the paper and tugged it out of Lance’s gentle pinch. “So, what’s a guy like you even doing with this stuff anyway?”

“It’s sturdy.” Cade shrugged. “It’s a good material to have nonetheless. If you fold it just right, it makes a good container, and the scraps can be used to wrap other things in.”

“Do you always come into the rooms to get supplies?”

“I get it when and where I can.” He was struggling to fold it the paper into a more manageable size. “Sometimes I have to come into the rooms. It’s not like I can just go get it whenever I want to.”

“You want some help folding that?”

“No, I got it.” He manage to get the paper to crease and finally he smoothed it out. “I can fold one measly piece of paper.”

Lance bit back a comment on how the paper he was trying to fold was twice as wide as he was tall, and almost three times as tall. He also refrained from putting his hands near him to help, no matter how strong the temptation was to just hold down a corner. He’d heard how Cade had attacked Shiro when he had first caught him. He didn’t want the rile up the little guy by crowding him.

He could spot the hook he used hanging in his belt. It had three prongs and looked wicked sharp. It would definitely stick in his skin. Lance had fish hooks get stuck in his skin before. It wasn’t an experience he’d like to have again.

Now that he was looking, he was able to spot the sword that was in its sheath on his other hip. It probably was way sharper than that hook. It could probably cut all the way to the bone if Cade put everything into it.

The realization made him stick his hands in his pockets. “So, Cade. You’ve been living here in the Castle all your life?”

“Yes.” He glanced up at him briefly. “All twenty four solar cycles of it.”

“What was it like, a bunch of people living in a city within the walls of a castle?”

“Dunno. I never really lived in it.” Cade admitted. “I lived a bit of a ways off.”

“You were by yourself?”

“For the most part.” Cade had gotten it to a manageable size. “Most of my interactions with the townsfolk was either trading for goods or helpling out the local street kid hide from the guards when he got caught stealing food.”

“Sounds fun.”

“The best parts was where my friends and I would be out exploring the rooms and passageways.” He cleared his throat. “I best be going now.”

“Oh, right. Sorry, didn’t mean to keep you from doing...whatever you’re doing.” He thought about going up onto the bed, but decided against it. “Is it alright if I just stay here in the floor? I don’t want to loom.”

“I’m fine as long as you don’t try to follow me.” Cade had the paper halfway tucked into the bag, and he kicked the paper ball towards the vent in the wall, speed walking in that direction. “See you around, giant.”

“It’s Lance.” He said suddenly.

“Hmn?” Cade turned to look at him.

“My name. It’s Lance. And we’re humans, not...well, I guess we technically are giants compared to you.” He rubbed his neck. “Anyway, uhm, it was nice to officially meet you, Cade.”

“It was nice to meet you too, Lance.” And with that, he disappeared into the ventilation.


	14. Chapter 14

Cade was mending a hole in his shirt by one of the vent openings. There were lights in the shafts, but he didn’t feel like using those, the light would give him a headache after a while. The human -that word still felt weird to his mouth- that lived in this room had put some kind of film over the light fixtures that made the light not so harsh, and also gave it a slight yellow tinge.

With this light, he could pretend that the light streaming through the vent was sunlight, something he sorely missed. He still had many questions about everything that was going on outside the castle, and his questions grew every time he looked out the window, seeing all kinds of weird things.

His heart ached for his old life, but he knew that there was no going back. There were no massive hallways to explore or large things to scale. The most interesting thing in the bridge colonies were the ruve, and those creatures were very dangerous.

Once his clothes were mended and he had put his shirt back on he had headed towards the kitchens. The humans had set up a little system so there was always food put to the side in case Cade wanted something. After all, he’d lived here first.

With an easy source of food and water, he was able to actually explore the castle more, he was even trying to find a new place to hole up. Preferably one that was in a location only he and the mice would be able to get into. The reminder of what happened to his last house was still evident anytime he wandered too close to the old village.

He once had broken into a couple of the boarded up homed to see if there was anything left at all inside. The only thing he had found, after breaking into three houses, was a ruve saddle. Considering the ruve all migrated when the rest of Cade’s people did, he had no use for it other than to break it down and keep the straps and seat.

He was at one of the entrances to the kitchen and he glanced out. The humans all knew about him, he just was a little nervous about going near them. They were still massive and could still easily hurt or kill him if he wasn’t careful.

He saw the dark skinned one that wore yellow. That one spent a lot of time in the kitchens. Cade stopped and stared. He had become increasingly aware the more that he watched the humans and listened to their conversations that they (with a few exceptions) were much younger than he had originally thought. This one was no exception. This one was still adolescent, despite being one of the biggest.

The longer he stared, the more he was arguing with himself about actually getting something to eat. The human was right there, and he was enormous. But, he was hungry.

But the human.

But food.

Before his stomach could change his mind, he marched out of the hiding spot out into the open. He made several steps out when the human looked away from what it was doing and spotted him.

“Oh! Hey Cade.” He smiled. “Guess you’re in here for some food, don’t worry, I’ll move.” he grabbed the bowl and the ingredients that he was using and moved to the counter in the middle of the floor.

Cade was surprised, if he had to be honest. Just like that he had moved out of his way and Cade now had a clear shot to the food. Suddenly, this human was his favorite. “Thank you.”

He looked back up. “Hm?”

“Thank you.” He repeated, louder. A quick jog across the countertops and he was at the container. It took a little wrestling with the lid, but it popped off without too much hassle. There was a variety of things in there, so he grabbed a little bit of everything. In a strange moment he realized he probably looked just like Simon when he saw an unattended stall.

Simon was the street kid who stole from the vendors. Cade had bonded with him a little, helped him duck the guards or scouts that would see him sneaking off with food. The guards never really wanted to catch him because he was just one little kid, and most the town, Cade included, sympathized with him.

Shaking the vision out of his head, he filled his bag and took a piece of something vegetable like for right then. As he prepared to leave he glanced at the human to see him staring with amazement, causing him to jump a little.

“I’m sorry.” The human apologized, looking away. “I shouldn’t have been staring.”

“It’s alright.” Cade shuffled his feet. He had been staring himself, moments ago. “It’s just curiosity.”

So long as you stay over there

“Do you need something else or are you just gonna go do your thing in the walls?” The human asked. “I’m not gonna force you out, I’m just - I’m just asking.”

Cade made a decision. “Yes, actually. What’s your name?”

“My name?”

“Yes, I feel like I should know your names, considering we’re neighbors.” That was a very poor way of saying that.

“Oh, my name’s Hunk.” He smiled. Cade could have kicked himself. That smile was so disarming. “I guess you won’t be staying for dinner?”

“No, I have things to do.” He really didn’t but he was not comfortable being around more than one human at a time, nevermind all of them at once. Cade turned to leave. “You know, for a human, you’re very polite.”

“Thank you.”

“You and Lance haven’t grabbed at me, or destroyed my house. So, thanks for that I guess.”

“Destroyed your house?”

Cade made a reminder to kick himself later. “Yeah, uhm, there was something weird going on in the vents, and one of you were in there, and they, uhm, kind of kicked my house.”

“Oh, I’m really sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

“No, no, I’ve got it under control.” He said in his most reassuring voice.

“Okay. See you around.”

“Goodbye, Hunk.” And with that, he scurried into the vents, trying to keep his heart rate under control.

\------------------------

Hunk groaned and he looked down at the counter, already visualizing what happened that night in the vents from what Pidge had told them about. “Oh Pidge, what did you do?”


	15. Chapter 15

“Pidge, you wrecked his house.” Hunk was following behind the younger paladin. “Why didn't you say something?”

“I didn't know!” Pidge said in defense. “I was kinda trying not to get shot by sentries. I didn't mean to.”

“You should apologize.”

“What kind of apology would I even say to him? I don't know if he even wants to hear it.”

“Then you should find a way to show that you're sorry. Actions speak louder than words, and you gotta show the little guy you're sorry.”

“And how do I do that?” Pidge questioned. “You're already really providing the one thing he actually needs from us, how do I apologize like that?”

Hunk had to think for a second. “Well, if his home was in the ventilation, then maybe some of his stuff had been caught into the filter. If you check the filter for any large particles, you might find some of his stuff, and you could give it back as an apology.”

“I seriously doubt the castle has a primitive enough air filtration system that it’s similar to a home air filter.”

Not an hour later, Pidge was laying on her stomach in a small tunnel and she was digging through the filtration systems. “Wow. It is identical to a home air filter.” Pidge shone a light on the dusty screen. “And it’s got some large particles in it. Awesome.”

\-----------------

Cade was observing the rooms through the higher vents, getting a better view. He had a small list of things that would be necessary for him to make a more permanent home outside the ventilation, and he was going to ask before he took this time.

He was observing the youngest giant’s room, they may be extremely messy, but they had the best things, and they normally had things to spare. He made a little note on his list to ask for some advice on the actual names of things.

He was about to move on when his eyes skated over a couple of small objects sitting on the middle of the table. He couldn’t see them too well, but they were small, so he was going to get a closer look.

After climbing, running, and jumping, he was able to climb up the table himself. Once up there, he skirted past a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers to check out the items on the table. He stopped and stared in disbelief. There weren’t things his size, they were his.

Cade stooped down beside the pile of items and picked up a sheathed knife. This was his knife he had lost when his home was destroyed. He recognized the carved handle, the worn leather sheath.

He pulled the blade from the sheath and saw it was still polished after his last use. Questions racing through his mind, he placed it back in the sheath and was tucking it in his bag when he heard the woosh of a door opening. He sprang to his feet as the young giant came into the room, scratching their back and holding a small bag and flashlight in their hand.

“That was the last of that.” They tossed the bag onto the table, missing Cade and the pile by less than a foot, and they glanced over to presumably toss the flashlight as well and they froze, staring at Cade. “Uhm, hi.”

Cade pulled himself out of his surprised shock, indignance of all things spurring his actions against the giant. “What were you doing with these?” He gestured to the pile of things at his feet. “Where did you even find them?”

“The air filters.” They said slowly as they placed the flashlight on a different surface that was covered in junk. “I was looking for them so I could, uh, well, so I could apologize to you.”

“And why would you do that?”

“Well, uhm, Hunk told me what happened to your house.” They started to wring their hands nervously. “I realized that I was the one responsible for the damage, and I was trying to find a way that I could apologize to you without looking, uhm, patronizing.”

Cade looked at the items at his feet, then back at the giant, then back at the items. “I never caught your name.”

“Uh, I go by Pidge.”

Cade wasn’t one to judge a strange name. “Pidge, thank you for going through the trouble for finding these things for me.”

“You’re welcome.” They adjusted their glasses. “Uh, did you find the knife? I thought it looked more important than the other stuff, so I did my best to clean the dust off.”

“I did.” Cade patted the bag on his back. “Thank you.”

They nodded nervously, then they walked closer to the table. “I found a few things going through the last stretch of vent, that is if, uh, if I can put my hands….near the table.”

“So long as you don’t try to grab.” Cade put a hand on his sword hilt.

“Okay.” Pidge gently picked up the small bag and opened the top and turned it upside down. A cloth house shoe, a tattered book, a worn bag, and several crumbs fell out. Pidge shook the bag a little, releasing some dust, and then tossed it on their bed. “It’s more than I found in a few of the others.”

Cade grabbed the matching shoe out of the pile of assorted junk at this feet, then marched over and snatched the other one up. “I was worried I’d have to disassemble these if I couldn’t get the other one.”

“Well, now you got ‘em both.” Pidge adjusted their glasses.

“Yeah, I guess I do.” He picked up the bag. It was a little ratty, slightly threadbare in a few places, but it was still functional. He held it by the strap, flipping open the top, and smacked it against the table top a few times to get some of the dust out. “There we go.” he tossed the shoes in and then he picked up the book.

“Uh, if it’s personal, I don’t want to know, but, what’s the book about?”

“Oh, this old thing?” He brushed dust off the cover. “It’s just a little sketchbook from a long time ago. Mostly still life, I still can’t draw most living things.” He dumped it in the bag, the jogged over to the small pile of junk from her previous escapades into the vent for Cade.

He snatched up another book. It was leatherbound, and there were a few attempts of a map inside, but nothing successful. He dropped it into the bag and scooped up what seemed to be the remains of a quiver. There was a tear in the handle, rendering it useless unless tied to a belt or a strap, and after shaking the dust out he was able to see there was an arrowhead with a bit of the shaft still attached.

Unexpected emotions welled up inside Cade at seeing the quiver. It had been Brian’s. He had left it in his house for safekeeping, and he’d not even asked for it back when his family had been packing up. Though, that may be because Brian was forgetful. Cade clutched it close, trying to keep his composure in the presence of the giant.

“What is that?” Pidge tilted their head. “Some leather?”

Cade brought himself back to the present. “Uh, it was my friend’s quiver. He left it in my house. I guess he had thought I’d bring it to him when I evacuated.”

“Your friend had a bow and arrow?” They looked intrigued. “And you’ve got a sword. That's so cool. So, you're like knights?”

“Uhm, Brian was a scout.” Cade dropped his large bag and started looking for some paper to wrap the arrowhead in. “I was going to be one, but I ended up abandoning that in favor of exploration.” He shrugged.

Pidge pulled up a stool and sat on it. “Scouts? You guys had scouts?”

“Yeah.” Cade nodded as he found a suitable piece of paper. “They explored the castle, they explored the outside, they kinda enforced the rules. I wasn’t cut out to be one of them from the start.”

Pidge adjusted their glasses. “You seem to be a rational individual. I don’t see why not.”

“I, uh, I always got into way too much trouble to be one of them.” Cade was carefully wrapping the remains of the arrow. “I got caught stealing when I was a teen. I wasn’t too fond of other people, and, well, I was too caught up in the adventure to even live in the village. I just wasn’t gonna fit in.” He tucked the arrowhead away.

“Huh.” Pidge looked deep in thought. “Well, Keith doesn’t really fit in among us. He’s kinda that emo loner.” The look on Cade’s face must have given away that fact he had no idea what they were talking about, as they chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of their neck.

“Uh, well, it was lovely talking to you.” Cade adjusted his bags on his back. “I should be going now.”

“Oh! Right.” Pidge looked around. “Uh, I’ll just chill on my bed.” They hopped down from the stool and they climbed onto their bed. “Uh, bye I guess.”

“Goodbye.” Cade had to shout as he got his hook for climbing. “I’ll see you around.”

“Guess so.”


	16. Chapter 16

Cade was organizing his bags when the mice appeared beside him. "Hey guys." He gently scratched under their chins as they fought for his attention. "How are you doing? They squeaked and nudged at his hands. Cade let up on the pets so he could finish putting the things in their new places in his bags.

He got his bags adjusted on his back and then he was able to get to his feet, only to be knocked over by the large yellow mouse. "What is it? The large mouse grabbed his sleeve with its mouth and pulled. He stumbled to his feet, being half dragged by the mice through the ventilation. "I'm coming. I'm coming. You’ll tear my sleeve, ease up."

After a long walk through the vents being led by his sleeve, Cade emerged into one of the rooms. It wasn't any of the dens, but he'd seen a few of the humans sleep here before. He'd heard one of them call it the lounge. "Okay, I'm here, what now?"

The mice squeaked and dashed towards one of the couches. "I'm coming." He jogged behind them. The smaller ones squirmed under one of the couches, causing Cade to drop to his hands and knees to watch them go underneath.

"Where are you going? I can't follow you down there." He could, but he really didn't want to go down there with all the dust and the webs and he'd have to take off a lot of his stuff so he could move comfortably.

He looked over at the yellow mouse, which was crouched beside him. "Can you believe them?"

They just gave a little chirp. Cade rolled his eyes and sat back. There was no need to sit there and try to see the mice scurrying around under there. After a few seconds, they emerged, one of them carrying a gold hoop in its teeth.

“Are those for me?” He asked, amused by the creatures. They knew he scavenged, and apparently they were showing him a good spot to search. Under the couches. He’d look under there if he was desperate. There still was Otega knows what down there.

The small green one gently nudged the other gold hoop he still had strapped to his bag, then the dusty thing was set in front of him. It was apparently for him to have. A match for the other one.

He looked closer at the band, it was a solid band, made of a heavy yellow metal like the other one on his bag, adorned with scratches. It must have belonged to a working person. On the inside was an engraving, faded with use. ‘For always having my back.’

“Is this any of the humans?” He raised an eyebrow. He didn’t want to be taking something that belonged to someone who lived there.

They shook their head, and he gave them a pat.

“Well, let’s go get this thing cleaned up, and you guys need a bath.” He rubbed his hand on his pants. The mice were covered in dust, and it was all over his hands from the brief pat on the head.

The band was attached to his bag with a bit of string, then he hitched the bag up on his back. “Where can a guy get some clean water?”

The large yellow mouse tugged on his belt, dropping lower to the ground almost like it wanted him to get on. He tugged his belt out of its teeth exasperatedly. “What is it?” He was nudged in the back by another mouse. They wanted him to get on. It was better to not fight with them, especially since the yellow mouse was bigger than he was.

He slung a leg up on its back and barely got balanced before the large mouse stood up and took off. Luckily Cade had ridden animals before or else he would have been thrown. He managed to somehow stay on the creature as they vanished back into the walls and followed a twisting path through the corridors.

They arrived in a fairly bare room. There was a two sectioned sink in the counter with a faucet over it. One side was fairly deep, the other was fairly shallow. Cade slid off the mouse’s back and looked around. There were a few large towels folded and stacked on a table. There was a shelving unit with assorted hygiene items, a drain in the floor.

“This is you guys, huh?” He patted the yellow mouse as they rushed by him towards the sink. "Go ahead. I'm not gonna stop you."

He was going to use some of the water to clean and polish the band. He’d helped the mice fill the sink with warm water and he was currently sitting cross-legged by the shallow side. A damp towel was being used to clean the dust off and buff up the band.

He kept staring at the message engraved on the inside. It was very sweet. “Thanks for having my back.” He whispered to himself. “I wonder who’s this was.”

He heard footsteps approaching the door. Cade set his sword right by his side, but otherwise didn’t move. He was not going to be afraid of these people. The long haired lady giant appeared, and she looked a little annoyed.

"If you all wanted a bath, you should have gotten me." Her eyes widened as she noticed Cade. "Oh, hello Cade. I'm Allura, it's nice to meet you."

He nodded. "Nice to meet you as well."

"The mice called me. They wanted me to give them a bath." She rubbed her arm. "I hope you don't mind if I stay in here."

"It's alright. I'm just cleaning something I found."

"Alright." She rolled up the sleeves on her dress.

They fell into a companionable silence, only broken by the mice's squeaks. Cade only went near the water to wet another scrap of cloth as the first one was filthy.

"You seem nervous, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just don't like water." He shrugged. "I can't really swim."

"Oh? I had no idea."

"Well, it had no use to me. It's not like there was a lake or a pond inside the walls for me to be in."

\--------------------

Allura was trying to dry the mice and Cade was finishing up with the band when the older giant came in, the one with the orange mustache. "Sorry to interrupt, Princess, I was just putting away some towels." He started arranging a stack of fluffy white towels on the racks.

"No need to be sorry Coran. I'm just giving the mice a bath and Cade's polishing a find." She shrugged.

As he turned to leave he noticed the gold band that Cade had been polishing. "Where did you find that ring?"

"Oh, the mice pulled it out from under some furniture. I was just spiffing it up." He paused, noticing the look in his eyes. "Is this yours?"

"I think so. Is there an engraving on it?"

"Yeah." He turned it over and held it out for him to look at. "Here."

Coran gently took the ring from Cade's grip and inspected it. His eyes flicked from the ring to Cade and then over to Allura. "Your father gave this to me a long time ago."

Cade felt embarrassed. He grabbed his things and stood up. "You can have it back. I was unaware that it belonged to someone."

"It's alright." He took off one of his white gloves and slipped the ring on his finger. "I'm not upset. It was an honest mistake." He pulled the glove back on.

“When did my father give that to you?” Allura asked, curious. “You weren’t a knight, were you?”

“No, no.” He waved it off. “I wasn’t a knight, but I was able to save his life once. Quick thinking and a silver tongue can really help out in the Zonus galaxy.”

“What were you doing in the Zonus galaxy?”

“It’s frankly a long and embarrassing story. Just know it involved a few of the original paladins, teladuv schematics, copious amounts of nunvill, and a couple of other space crafts.”

Cade was increasingly confused. Galaxies? Space crafts? Were they talking about space travel?

“Excuse me.” Cade got their attention. “Space crafts? Did you use to pilot a space ship?”

“Well, yes, and I help with the castle now.”

The castle was a space craft. That made so much more sense. The all-encompassing night sky, the lack of changing time. The shaking. Otega, he was so dense.

“Are you alright Cade?” Allura asked. “You look faint.”

“I’m fine.” He lied. “I was simply unaware the castle was a space craft. I’ll, uh, I’ll be going now. It was nice talking to you, and I guess you’re welcome for finding the ring.” He ignored their confused glances as he went back into the wall. He needed some time to think. Maybe get something to eat and then lay down for a while.


	17. Chapter 17

Cade was staring out the window in the lounge. He was just so exhausted. He was in space, on an enormous ship, and the only way he could possibly go home is if he made these people go out of their way to bring him home.

He really didn't want to bother them like that. He could barely speak to them without his heart racing, much less ask anything of them properly.

The thing was, Cade didn't even know if he wanted to go back. The Castle was all he had ever known. His home had been here, he'd grown up here. He might have been on a planet called Arus, but his world was this ship, these walls. He couldn't just abandon all of it.

It wasn't like many people awaited him there anyway. Brian, perhaps. His best friend for his whole life probably mourned for him. But, he would move on, he was a social creature, he probably already hooked up with others.

Simon. The kid probably missed him, but if he'd left, it meant somebody else has taken him in. He would be alright. Food was aplenty at the bridge colony, Simon wouldn't go hungry there.

Angelica. Oh Angelica. If there was one thing he'd missed the most, it was her. Just sometimes the way she would talk him out of stupid decisions or she would laugh at him and Brian arguing made him long to be by her side again.

He pressed his hand against the clear metal that made the window. One of these pinpricks of light was the sun that the planet orbited around.

Angelica was probably basking in the rays of one of those tiny dots of light. She always loved to be outside.

He was jolted out of his thoughts by the door opening. He looked over his shoulder to see Shiro in his night clothes. Black tank top and grey sweatpants. He looked as tired as Cade felt.

Cade chose to ignore him and went back to staring out the window. If he needed something, he'd get his attention.

"Hey Cade." Shiro sat on the sill of the window, in the spot farthest from Cade. "You can't sleep either?"

He nodded, hugging his knees to his chest.

"Thinking of home?"

Cade shook his head, then buried his face in his knees.

"I was told Allura and Coran dropped the bomb on you that this is a spaceship."

"Yeah." He looked up. "It's just a lot to take in."

"I can imagine." Shiro brought his feet up, turning his back against the wall and mimicking Cade's curled up pose. "When I was abducted by the Galra, it was a real shock to me. We'd never picked up signs of sentient life before, at least not anything from credible sources, and then me and my crew were all abducted by some furry purple aliens."

"Sounds awful." He sighed. "You should have seen how the colony when I came stumbling into town one day, screaming my head off about giants. People thought I was drunk, or that I'd given myself a concussion."

"You saw us first?"

"Yeah." Cade sighed. "I was just doing my thing, looking for something to pay for my rations, when I see five of you, stomping around. Considering I didn't actually really believe giants existed anymore, it was a bit of a shock."

“You didn’t believe in us?” He looked slightly amused.

“No.” He shrugged. “Why would we? There’s not been a giant sighting for generations, and even more time passed since we’ve seen one _inside_ the castle. I thought maybe you’d all just died or something.”

“Fair.” He mused. “So, after you come stumbling around, what happened next?”

“Well, first I was treated for head injury and alcohol overdose. Yes, I had hit my head, but only after I saw you guys and ran. It’s not my fault I forgot there was a low hanging piece of metal.” He uncurled a little. “After I continued to rant and rave about it, a couple of other scouts went to go check. They didn’t see you, but they saw evidence of some really big things moving around in here, not to mention the castle itself started changing.”

“In what ways?”

“Water started moving through the pipes, things were starting up that had been dormant since the colony was started. Anyway, they started to believe me, so I lead a slightly larger group of scouts to go show them what I saw, and, well, we saw you guys.”

“And we’ve been told how that went.”

“Yeah, they all booked it for the village within two minutes. One guy was going to try and shoot at you.”

“Shoot at us? With a bow and arrow that’s about the size of our fingers?” Shiro was definitely amused by the notion.

“Yeah.” Cade laughed. “Everyone else was gonna throw him to you as a sacrifice if he did.”

Shiro chuckled, then fell silent, lost in his thought. Cade followed suit and he continued to stare out the window.

“If you want to go home.” Shiro started, minutes later, “Then we’ll take you home. It’s not that far of a trip with the teladuv, and we help refugees and Galran prisoners get home all the time. You’re not gonna put us out by wanting to go home.”

Cade sighed as he looked up at Shiro. “But the castle is my home. I was born in these walls, I was raised here. I don’t even know what I’d do back on Arus.”

“We’re not gonna force you anywhere, but, just know that if you want to go home, the option’s open.”

“Thank you Shiro, for telling me about it.” He sighed. “But I think that I’m gonna be staying here.”

“If that’s want you want.”


	18. Chapter 18

Cade was exploring the deep depths of the Castle. Now that he knew a bit more about his home, and had decided that this place was his home now, he had decided to try and help with the upkeep as well as continue his maps.

As he walked alone, he was able to just listen to the hum of the electricity, the rumbling of the pipes, and creaks of the metal settling in the artificial gravity. It was ominous but peaceful at the same time. The noises were familiar, and they weren't interrupted by the stomping of enormous feet or the scurrying of mice.

He liked the mice, he did, but they would get a little annoying every now and then, constantly fighting for attention. They didn't like going down this far, so they weren't with him at the moment.

Cade made a little mark on his map when he thought that he heard footsteps. He looked around. He wasn't moving, and they weren't the rhythmic booming of any of the human's footsteps. They were from someone who was his size. He shook his head and made a more detailed mark on the map. That was impossible. They had all left. He was alone inside the ship when it came to people that were his own size.

He explored deeper, stopping to take a break once he had hit a fork in the road. He was munching on a bit of bread when he heard the footsteps again. He stilled completely, tuning out the background noise to really listen.

They sounded like someone who was limping. He knew what a limp was like, Brian had one for a while after he had sprained his ankle during one of their expeditions. He walked fine now, but the sound of someone with a limp had engrained itself into Cade's mind.

"Hello?" He shouted. "Is anyone down there?"

The noise stopped, then started again, the person was trying to run.

"Hey! Wait!" He dashed off in the direction of the noise, going down the right shaft. "Come back!" He rounded the corner, just barely seeing something vanish at the end of the path, and he followed.

There was nobody, and the shaft stretched for a while, so he should have been able to see them if someone was there. They couldn't have gone that far with a limp like that. Stilling, Cade listened again. He could hear the quiet thump of the limping person. They sounded so close, but at the same time, so far.

Was he just going crazy? Had he been down deep enough in the extreme dim that he had started hearing the noises of things he'd imagined?

Or, was the person in the other tunnel?

He turned and sprinted back up the tunnel, dashing into the other tunnel so he could catch this person. Only a few steps around the bend, he stopped. Now he couldn't hear the limping anywhere. Getting out his maps, he started logging the information about the two tunnels, and then he walked back into the other tunnel, making a tiny note about hearing limping footsteps here.

A sigh left his lips and he continued with the tunnel. He had hoped, somewhere inside of him, that there was someone actually there. He wanted to speak with people his own size, not have to shout to be heard, to not have some lingering fear that he would be hurt by some accidental move.

He couldn't think about that now. He had maps to fill out by the small light he had from the thin glowing strip that was in the corner of the tunnels. He'd have to just keep it as a hallucination until he had some definitive proof that he was not the only Little on the ship.

\-----------------------

Cade was back in the bowels of the castle but two days later. This time he was just there to focus on figuring out the source of the limping noise. He had to put the idea that there was someone else his size here to rest or else he would never let it go and it would drive him over the edge one day.

He hadn't told anyone about his brief hallucination, he didn't want to bother them. There seemed to be enough going on with them as it were. Something about finding a weak spot to attack the Galran empire. He didn't want to get involved.

He was listening, eyes wide in the dim light, waiting to hear something. He sat on the floor of the tunnel he had first heard the footsteps in and he waited.

It started after a few minutes. He could hear the noise, very faintly. It got louder and closer. He looked to where the noise seemed to be coming from but couldn't see anything. He kept quiet as the steps got even closer, and then they slowed and finally stopped what seemed to be just inches from him.

There was a quiet bang on the wall that was close to him and then he heard muffled sobbing. He recognized sobbing. He knew that there was someone his size crying right next to him, but he just couldn't see who was doing it. 

He leaned his head against the wall and he gasped quietly. The crying was coming from behind the wall. He couldn't see where the person went after they rounded the corner because they went inside the walls. They were between the tunnels and pipes and they were in the spaces in the ship that he didn't go in.

He jumped to his feet and then he glanced up and down the tunnel and he found the panel that someone his size could slip behind if there was a crack inside it like there was. He took his hook and he wedged it in the crack and pulled with all his might. The panel gave way with a screeching, grinding noise.

Inside was pitch blackness. He took a deep breath and jumped into the dark. He fell about an inch before stumbling onto a pipe and he smacked his head on the neighboring air duct. He didn't waste any time sprinting towards the source of the noise.

He heard a squeal and then he was chasing the source of the limping noise. Cade had to keep a hand on the air duct to his left so he wouldn't fall off the pipe in the dark. He heard metal creaking and then he was nearly blinded with a shaft of light from the inside of an air duct.

A figure slipped away into the vent and he raced after then, trying to recover from going from pitch black to the bright bluish light that was signature of the ventilation system. His heart was racing. He had seen the figure with his own two eyes, and not just a quick glimpse. They had opened up this panel, they had scrambled inside, and they had tried to slam it on him as they had taken off.

With their limp, he caught up soon enough. He had jumped on them before they rounded another corner and the two of them had slammed into the floor, Cade on top of them.

"Let go of me! Let go of me!" They flailed angrily. "Get your filthy hands off me!"

"Who are you?!" He grabbed their hands, one that was clutching a filthy dagger. A familiar filthy dagger.

Cade glanced from the dagger to the short, stocky woman he was practically sitting on. The deep brown wild hair, matted with grease. The dark brown skin, the familiar black eyes, the curve of her face, smudged with grease and shaped by exhaustion and hunger. He knew her.

"Angelica?"


	19. Chapter 19

"Angelica?" 

His heart soared as she struggled against his grip. "Angelica! It's me!" He took the knife from her without getting stabbed and chucked it down the duct. "It's me. It's Cade."

"No! You're dead!" She fumed. "I saw you get taken by a human. You died."

"No, it's okay. I'm okay." He let go of her wrists and he hugged her tightly. "I missed you, so much."

She slowly stopped struggling. "Cade, is it really you?"

"It's me. It's me." He whispered in her ear. He could feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyes as he buried his face in her hair. "You're here."

She pulled back and then hit him across the face, hard. "I cannot believe you!" She hissed.

"What was that for?" He backed away from her while she was still angry. He knew she had more than one knife.

"First, you let everyone think you've been captured or killed because your house was destroyed. Then I stay behind to look for your body and I miss the evacuation, then the Castle launches into the sky. Then I finally find you, the thing I got stranded here to do, and you get caught by a human!"

Cade rubbed the sore spot on his cheek. "Which time?"

"Whi-?" She blinked, and he had to remind himself he could outrun her because she was limping.

_Wait. Why is she limping? Did she get hurt?_

"WHICH TIME?" He blinked in surprise at her raised voice. "You've been caught more than once? I cannot believe you! You idiot!" He dodged her trying to hit him again. "How many times were you caught? How many times did you offend Oteyga with your cheating death?"

"Only twice!" He said defensively. "I only got caught twice. Which did you see?"

"I saw you grabbed by your leg, concealed in a fist, and I _thought_ you were crushed to death by that giant."

Cade nodded in understanding. It probably looked like a situation he wouldn't come back from. He hadn't thought he'd survive as well.

"Well, tell me how you escaped death this time. I know you're dying to tell me."

Cade sighed. "It can wait.” He crawled over to where she was sitting. “You were limping. Can I look at your leg?"

She glared for a moment, then she let loose a deep sigh. “Sure. I don’t think it’s that bad. I can still walk.” He gently rolled up her pants leg to get a look at her skin. The brown skin was mottled with purple and sickly yellow splotches. She inhaled through her teeth as the pants bunched up around another bruise. “Yeah, that hurts.”

“Hold on.” Cade pulled his knife from his belt and split the pants leg around her wounded area. “This looks really bad.”

“It’s just a sprain.”

“You shouldn’t be putting weight on this.” He slung his bag off his shoulders and started digging for splint materials. “If you were running around so much without a splint, I’m surprised you can walk at all.”

“I’m not a baby.” She looked over his bag and the items he’d taken out. “Are those giants blind or did you get good? Your bag’s full to bursting.”

“I got good.” He lied. “When’s the last time you ate?”

“A while.” She scoffed. “Those things are always either in the kitchen or they’re cleaning it way too thoroughly.”

Cade had to bite his tongue about the small container that they set out for him. “Here.” He handed the provisions bag to her. “Help yourself. I have more stowed away.” She rummaged through the bag while he managed to put a splint on her leg. “How’d you sprain your leg?”

She swallowed the food in her mouth and took a long drink of water before answering. “I was looking for a place to set up camp, and I had peeled away another panel and when I went through and it’s like the gravity in that area was flipped and I fell to the ceiling.” She winced as he finished up the splint. “I landed wrong on my leg.”

“Ouch.” He hissed and put everything back in his bag. “C’mon. Let’s get you out of here.”

“And go where?” She took another drink from his canteen. “This is the only place that’s at a safe distance from those monsters.”

“They’re not as bad as you think.” He helped her to her feet. “I got away from them twice.”

“How’d you do that by the way?” Angelica had her arm slung around his shoulders as he hunched down to be her crutch. “You seemed pretty got by that giant.”

“Well, yeah.” He said as casually as he could. "But another human, the first one to catch me, came to my rescue." He continued to speak so she couldn't protest. "They're not _bad._ They're just big and terrifying, but once they figured it out that I was a person they were actually really respectful and they've not grabbed since."

She had a look of horror on her face. "The reason your bag is so full..."

"There's food set aside for me so I don't have to ask every time I want to eat."

She got out from under his arm, shoving him away as hard as she could, which was pretty hard for someone her size. "You pet!"

"Angelica, wait." He tried to grab her arm as she hobbled away from him.

She pulled out the other knife and nearly got him in the arm. "You sold yourself out to them for food! You're no better than a pet!"

"Angelica, just listen to me!"

"No!" She had her knife level with his throat as she leaned on the wall, glaring with suspicion. "You were going to take me out there to them, weren't you?"

"Ang-"

"Tell me!" She slashed the knife in the air, causing him to jump back again after trying to approach. "Were you going to expose me to them?"

"No, ye - no! I-"

"No!" She trembled with anger, knife level with his chest. "You stay away from me! Traitor! I _mourned_ you and you were going to sell me out to those monsters! For what? A pat on the head? A treat?"

"I am not a pet!" He shouted, blood rushing to his face. "Don't you _dare_ call me a pet! I am still a person! They know that! They respect my boundaries! They've not made a grab for me since! It's still terrifying to stare them down and have a conversation with them, but I manage. I adapted after I was _abandoned_ here to die. They offered to take me home, but I said no because the _colony_ would be better off without me!" There was an unexpected lump forming in his throat. "So don't you dare call me a pet."

Angelica slowly lowered the knife, tears welling in her eyes. "We didn't abandon you. We waited Cade, Brian had to drag Simon away. We all waited, I waited. I thought maybe you'd just hidden. I looked, Cade. Oteyga knows how much I looked. I found you, and then you were taken. I thought you died."

Cade found his own vision blurred with tears. "I thought you'd left me."

"Looks like we're both wrong." She dropped the knife and hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad you're alive."

"Me too." He hugged her back.

After a long moment, she spoke into his shirt. "Cade?"

"Hm?" He pulled back a little so she could speak clearly.

She looked up at him and then sighed. "Next time we go anywhere, don't oversleep."

A smile tugged at his lips. "I promise."

They finally pulled apart. Angelica took a deep breath, looking up and then down the duct for anyone watching. "Well, do these giants got medical supplies?"

"Yeah. Let's go get some compression bandages."

They walked down the ducts, Cade looking at the compressed map while he helped Angelica hobble. As they made it into the more active areas of the ship, they could hear thumps of distant footsteps. He could feel Angelica tense beside him.

"It's okay." He whispered in her ear. "They won't hurt you."

She nodded to herself, but she pulled out her knife as there was the familiar scurrying and scratching noises of the mice.

"The mice won't hurt you either." He gently put her knife away. "As a matter of fact, I think we need their help."

"How?"

"You can ride one."

Her eyes widened. "Like a Ruve?"

"Yup." He sighed and waited for the mice to find them. "But these guys have such soft fur."

"You're crazy."

The mice came chittering up to them, curious and excited to see Angelica.

"I had the Princess tell me about these guys." He patted the tiny green mouse. "This is Chulatt." She made a face. "I know, but they're from another planet as well. This guy, as mean as he looks, is actually pretty friendly. He's Plachu."

The pink mouse nudged at Angelica's good leg and she gently rubbed behind her ears. "And this cutie?"

"That's Chuchule." He scratched the yellow mouse's shoulder. "And this big guy is Platt."

"Nice to meet you, Platt." Angelica hid a snicker.

"Let's get you up there." He prepared to move Angelica as Platt laid down. He helped her get up on the mouse without too much trouble.

"Ready?" He patted the yellow mouse. "We're headed to the medicine bay, but I'm gonna walk, okay?"

The mouse squeaked before standing back up. Angelica had to regain her balance, but she eventually adjusted. "This is the strangest thing I have done, ever."

"C'mon. Let's go get something for your leg."


	20. Chapter 20

Angelica was nervous as they approached the medical bay. They could hear one of the humans moving around in there. Of course. Cade just hoped that Angelica wouldn't get nervous and bolt before he could grab the compression bandage.

"Just stay here." He told Platt before looking up at Angelica. "You don't have to go out there. I know how nervous they make you. I'll get the bandage and I'll come right back here, I promise."

She nodded, still holding a death grip one of her knives.

"They won't hurt me. I promise you."

She nodded again, not tearing her eyes away from the opening.

"I'm going to be right back." Cade reassured her before ducking through the opening. Shiro was shaking some medication into his palm.

"Hey Cade." He screwed the cap back on and took both pills dry. "I'm just getting something for this headache. You need something?"

Cade tore his eyes away from Shiro's throat and shrugged the question off. "Just a compression bandage."

Concern crossed his face. "You okay?"

He shrugged. "Do you know where it is?"

"Uh, I just saw it." He went back through the cabinets. After a little looking, he came back with the roll of elastic cloth. "Here you go." He set it on the counter near Cade. "You need anything else?"

"Nope. You can go." Cade looked over the bandage and pulled out his own knife to cut a strip off. 

"By the way, we can't find the mice. Do you know where they are?"

"Uuuuh, nope." He lied as he struggled to cut a strip off the bandage. "No idea."

Shiro gave him a skeptical look and then shrugged. "Okay then. If you find them, I guess let them know."

"Thanks." He managed to get enough bandage to properly help with Angelica's ankle.

"If you were hurt, it's okay to tell someone, Cade." This guy was such a hypocrite. Cade had seen him bandaging his own wounds in his locked bedroom so the others wouldn't worry.

"I wasn't hurt." He folded the bandage and started for the break in the wall. "I'll see you around."

"Wait." Shiro's hand suddenly blocked his path, making him jump back, the memory of being grabbed on that first meeting making his ribs ache. "Were one of the mice hurt? What happened?"

"It wasn't the mice either, Shiro." He walked around the flesh hand, trying to force his heart back out of his throat. "They're fine. I'm fine."

"If you're sure."

\---------------------

Back in the walls, Angelica was coming down from a freak out. "He was going to grab you!" She hissed.

"He wasn't going to grab." Cade managed to take her shoe off without aggravating the injury and further. "It was fine. I was safe."

"But what if he did?"

"He already grabbed me once. He knows to not grab again." He started to wrap up the sprain. "And if he did, I have a weapon to use against him."

"Because your hook would do so much help when it's pressed into your hip."

"I was talking about my knife." He rolled his eyes. "Here. I think I got it."

"Good." She sighed, looking down at her bandaged ankle. "So, what's our plan?"

"Well, we can go back to Arus."

Angelica scoffed. "Like they'd take us. If you've not noticed, they're huge."

"Well, actually, they've offered to take me home. If I tell them I've changed my mind, then we can be in the bridge colony soon."

"But you'll have to go talk to them to do that."

"I know." He rubbed his neck. "I was hoping that maybe you could come with me, to be a little bit of support."

"What?" She smirked. "You don't have the courage to keep staring them down? Want little old injured me to help a big tough guy like you stay calm 'cause you can't talk to them yourself?"

"I can so talk to them myself, I've had extensive conversations with them in the past. I just think they deserve to know why I suddenly want to go home. So, if you want to, we can go find them now and be home soon." He held his hand out to her. "What do you say?"

"Cade," She took his hand and gently hopped off the mouse, keeping off her injured ankle, "You're going to get us both killed."

Their laughter echoed through the space for several feet in both directions.

\--------------------

Angelica was doing a good job of keeping her cool in front of _all_ of the humans _at once._ Cade's heart was pounding and his palms were sweaty as he explained how he came across Angelica in the depths of the ships and how they would like to get back to Arus as soon as they were okay with.

"Allura, we still haven't managed to find any good outposts to attack the Galrans from. While we consider our options, maybe we should take a detour back to Arus." Shiro suggested. "Since we have a little more information, while one of us helps them, the others could look through the remains of the robeast for anything useful."

She considered it for a moment. "It would be extremely helpful if we could trace the origin of the creature and find out where they come from."

"I'll enter the coordinates into the teladuv." Coran left for his control panel.

"I'll start the teladuv." Allura moved to the center of the room.

"Paladins, go suit up. We might not need the lions, but we're going to need protection for our hands and legs if we're scouring wreckage." Shiro and the other paladins left the room.

Angelica slipped her arm around Cade's shoulders, using him like a crutch. "We're going home." She whispered, giving him a pat on the arm.

He gently smiled at the contact as he looked at her. "What are the others going to think?"

"Brian's going to have a heart attack." Angelica suggested. "Simon is going to be over the moon to see you again."

"Yeah." He sighed. "It still all feels like a dream."

Shiro came back in, wearing a dark grey bodysuit and white plate armor over it. A helmet was under his arm as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Coran, considering the distance between the robeast wreckage and the previous landing point of the castle, maybe one of us could help escort Cade and Angelica home while the others search the wreckage."

"You should talk to _them_ about that."

Shiro nodded and then crossed the room to where they stood. Angelica tensed up a little beside Cade, who grabbed the hand closest to him and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"We're going to need the Castle to be close to the robeast wreckage, and where the Castle used to stand is a long ways from there." He rubbed his neck awkwardly. "If you're both okay with this, me or one of my crew could escort you two back, just to make sure you make it there safely."

Cade looked at Angelica. "Would you be okay with that?"

She looked up at Shiro, then at Cade. "Anything to get us home faster."

"We'll take the escort." Cade looked up at Shiro. "And, I'd prefer you, n-no offense to the others, of course. You have the steadiest hands."

He nodded. "I'll inform the others."

"Thank you, Shiro."


	21. Chapter 21

They had gone through a wormhole and made it out to the other side. The other humans had returned and were in similar armor, just with different colored accents. Cade and Angelica were breathless at the sight of the planet they’ve called their home underneath them. Angelica squeezed Cade’s arm, keeping the weight off her bad foot. “We’re going home.”

Shiro gently set his hand on the edge of the console where they stood. “I’m going to need to take my lion. It’s too far for even me to walk to in a timely manner.”

“Understood.” Cade nodded. “Angelica, are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“I’ll be fine.” She lied. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Cade helped her up onto his palm, and they had to drop to their knees as he moved. His hands were steady, they were just extremely nervous about falling. “Would you be okay with riding on my shoulder? I need both hands to pilot the lion.”

Cade nodded and he carefully moved his hand close to his armor’s collar. Cade scrambled up close to his neck and he helped haul Angelica up so she wouldn’t have to put weight on her bad ankle. He had one arm around her to hold her steady and his other hand was clinging tightly to the bodysuit. Angelica was keeping him balanced with one arm and she had her other slung up over the edge of the metal collar, gripping the metal tightly. 

“Easy, right?” Cade shifted his bags so they were more balanced. His sword was strapped to the bag, out of the way so he could sit comfortably.

“So easy.” Angelica nodded, having to consciously take deep breaths to keep her heart rate down. “Let’s just get going.”

“Wait, one thing.” He gently brushed his fingers against Shiro’s neck to make sure he had his attention, seeing the muscles tense and flex at the light touch. “Could you bring Platt with us? Angelica’s going to need them in town.”

“Oh, sure.” Shiro gently picked up the yellow mouse and set them on the other shoulder.

\-------------

Shiro was able to make it to the Black Lion’s den without any discomfort to his passengers, but it was so strange to him to feel the two entire people keeping their balance on his shoulder, not to mention Platt balancing on the other shoulder.

 _I really hope I don’t screw this up._ He found himself thinking as he walked in silence. _God, what a move would that be right now. Shrug and throw both of them to the floor. Would they even survive that?_

He shut down that train of thought before it could go any further morbid details. “I’m going to need you both to guide me, I don’t know what I’m looking for here other than it’s probably near to the Castle’s ten thousand year resting spot.”

“Got it.” Cade’s voice sounded out of his sight. It was so weird he couldn’t see them either. If he tried to turn his head to look, he’d upset their balance and make them fall.

Angelica hardly spoke around them, and when she did, it wasn’t much and it was always full of nerves. When Cade had helped her off of Platt and had her introduce herself, everything in her body language screamed fear, but as was Cade’s.

Neither of them had faced down all seven of them from so close, much less tried speaking. They had to be so brave. It would be hard for Shiro to face seven giants at once.

He sat in the cockpit of the black lion, checking his reflection in the view port as he kicked his helmet under the dash. He could just make out their shape against the dark cloth of his body suit and he noticed Platt was also checking out their reflection, and he had to suppress a chuckle.

Once the Castle had landed near the remains of the gladiator robeast, he took off, flying as smoothly as he was able. His passengers weren’t just first time flyers, they were also extremely fragile. On the surface of the planet, he was able to see his team heading for the wreckage.

The Black Lion slowly circled the plateau that the Castle had rested on for ten thousand years. “Any of the terrain look familiar?”

Angelica shifted forward, Cade shifted slightly back to anchor her, and Shiro suppressed a shudder. He would not be able to get used to that. But, if things went to plan, there would be no time to be used to it.

“There. The largest bridge. It’s under the largest piece of bridge.” Angelica spoke up.

Shiro made a ‘uh-huh’ noise, not trusting himself to nod, and landed in the space the Castle used to sit so there was no chance that the landing disturbed the colony. He retrieved his helmet and stood up as smoothly as possible and left the lion.

“That’s the direction?” He gestured to the large bridge that had broken in half who knew how many thousand years ago.

“Yeah.” Angelica settled back against Cade, and Shiro had to resist the urge to rub at his neck. "Go underneath it.

“How close should I get before I let you guys take Platt the rest of the way in?”

“Uh, let’s get down the slope, and we'll figure it out from there.” Cade suggested.

“Very well.” He adjusted his helmet under his arm before starting in that direction, fighting the itch near his neck.

\------------------------

They had made it down the slope without Shiro tripping and throwing his passengers, the village was in sight, but it was still a good walk away. After a little quiet debate, Cade had urged Shiro a little closer. It was still a good distance to the village after all. They got about halfway there before Cade told Shiro to stop. “Look, it’s scouts.”

Angelica nodded grimly. “We got to go on with Platt from here. Else they’ll think you’re attacking.”

“I can wait here.” He gathered up his three passengers and knelt to set them on the ground. “You two can handle this, right? I really don't want to be attacked.”

“Yeah.” Cade helped Angelica up onto Platt’s back. “You just stay here and…..try not to look as big?”

Angelica punched his arm.

“What?” He rubbed his arm. “It’s what’s freaking them out.”

“Just go.” She sighed and looked up at Shiro. “He meant to try and look as non-threatening as possible. We’ll handle the scouts.” And with that, the two of them rode off.

They approached the Scouts, and Cade slowed Platt down as the Scouts slowed their mounts to a trot. Ruve looked like the mice, but without tails, larger, an their ears and eyes were smaller. Cade saw Brian sitting atop his mount, looking like he was staring down two ghosts. He recognized the captain of the scouts, and two of the other scouts that he had taken to show them where the giants were.

"Dad!" Angelica shouted, letting go of Cade and sliding down to the ground. The Captain quickly scrambled off his ruve and raced over to Platt. Cade saw them embrace and spared a glance back to Shiro. He was awkwardly sitting on the ground, crosslegged, playing with a blade of grass between his fingers.

"Cade, you're alive, and you brought Angelica back with you." Brian looked in shock as he had his ruve stand beside Platt. "How?"

"It's a long, long story." He reached across the gap and hugged him before sitting back. "You guys out to slay the giant?" He gestured back to Shiro.

"It was mostly to observe." Brian rubbed the back of his neck. "Then we were round up the other scouts and we were going to try and slay it."

"No need." Cade waved him off. "He's not going to hurt anyone."

"Cade." He whipped around to see the Captain approach, one of the other scouts helping Angelica up on his mount, and he slid off Platt's back to be on level with him. "You were presumed dead. My daughter went missing looking for your corpse, now you both appear, alive, riding atop of one of the giant's pets with one in tow. I assume there's a good explanation to all this."

"There is, Sir." He glanced over at Shiro, who glanced over at them and then looked back at the ground. "Uhm, first off, I should tell you that he's not a danger to anyone. He's large, and he was a little grabby at first, but he's learned his lesson. He won't hurt anyone."

He glanced over at Shiro, then back to Cade. "That would explain how you're alive, but why is my daughter injured?"

"She sprained her ankle exploring the Castle. It was before I found her. She wasn't injured by the giants."

"I see." He put his hand on his sword hilt. "So why are you two with one of them?"

"They had caught me, before I was even aware of Angelica on the ship, but they aren't dangerous. Once they realized what I was, they left me alone, they respected my space. They're people too. They won't hurt anyone. They took us home. We asked them to bring us back, and they did."

The Captain took a deep breath, then turned to the scout that was holding his mount steady. "Take my daughter back to the village. Have the best healer we have take a look at her ankle, and have the scouts prepare for battle just in case."

"Yes sir." He scrambled up on the ruve and urged it off towards the colony. Cade saw Angelica wave, and he tried to return the gesture before she was out of sight. He had a feeling that she didn't want to go, but she knew better than to argue with the Captain.

"Cade, let's go see this giant 'friend' of yours."

"Yes sir." Cade scrambled back up on Platt, petting his neck. "C'mon buddy. Let's go."

They rode off towards Shiro, and Cade mentally prepared a speech, trying to keep his cool. Was he still sightly afraid of Shiro's sheer bulk? Yes. Completely. He had to take every ounce of that fear and shove in into the deepest parts of his soul so he could concentrate on stopping an incident from occurring.

Shiro noticed them coming, and he looked nervous, actually. Good sign, then. Hopefully it meant that the others would notice and see he's not a threat.

Cade hopped off Platt once he was close enough and Platt scrambled up onto his leg. He gave the mouse a tense smile and patted their head with a fingertip. "Cade." His eyes flicked to the tiny man.

"Shiro, this is the Captain of the Scouts, and Angelica's father." He gestured to The Captain, who straightened, a few beads of sweat at his hairline. Cade prayed tot he Goddess that Shiro could see the 'so be nice' message he was silently trying to convey. "Along with Brian, a good friend of mine, and one of the Scouts that first observed you."

"Pleasure." He lifted his free hand, paused when the ruve balked, and then set the hand back in his lap, carefully holding Platt. "I mean no harm to your village, I was just helping Cade and Angelica back home, since it was kinda our fault they got stranded."

The Captain dismounted and approached, one hand a death grip on his sword hilt. He boldly stared him down. "I would have preferred my daughter to have not been stranded in that metal monolith, but there's nothing either of us could have done to prevent that. I'm pleased you went through the trouble to return our citizens to us." He glanced over at Cade. "Thank you, very much. My name is Isaac." He stuck his hand out.

Cade's shoulders tensed slightly. He wanted to shake hands.

Goddess above, was this some kind of test? This was not going to go well.

\----------------

Shiro panicked, mind racing, as he figured out how he was supposed to go about this.

_How do I shake hands with someone the size of my finger? Think! Think, Takashi! Uh, carefully! Do whatever we're doing here so extremely carefully. Make it the most careful thing you have done in over a year._

He carefully extended his left hand and, with the tiniest amount of force he could muster, pinched his hand between his thumb and forefinger. His forearm disappeared nearly up to the elbow in the gentle pinch grip. "I'm Takashi Shirogane, paladin of the Black Lion, head of Voltron." He gently moved the tiny arm up and down before letting go and pulling his hand back. 

Cade looked between Shiro and the Captain, looking as flustered as Shiro had felt when he was trying to figure out what he was going to do about shaking the Captain's hand. 

It had been weird feeling a tiny hand flex between his the pads of his thumb and index finger, but he was proud of himself for being able to do it without hurting anyone and to also not freak the guy completely out. 

Platt nudged at his hand, and he moved his hand up off of them, and they jumped down and nudged Cade's chest. "You can't come with me." He awkwardly tried to move Platt away from him, casting a pleading glance towards Shiro before trying to shove them away again. "You're Allura's. She'll be mad if you don't come back." 

Platt squeaked and pounced on him, knocking him over. 

"C'mon Platt, you can't be rough with him." Shiro carefully grabbed the mouse’s scruff and hauled them back off him. "I know you'll miss him, but you can't just knock people over." 

Platt squeaked indignantly, straining against Shiro's hands, desperate for last second scratches behind the ear.

Cade got to his feet, dusting himself off. "Tell the others goodbye for me." 

Shiro nodded. “I will. You take care of yourself, Cade.”

“I will.” He gently put his hand on Shiro’s knuckle. "Thank you, for everything."

"You're welcome Cade."

“Good luck protecting the universe.” He pulled away, wishing he had better things to say, but he had never been the best with words. "Goodbye, Shiro."

“Tell Angelica goodbye for me, okay?” Cade nodded as Shiro cupped Platt in his hands and watched Cade scramble up into the saddle behind Brian. Then, on the Captain’s command, they sped off towards the colony.

There was a weird ache in Shiro’s chest. He was gonna miss the little guy. 


	22. Chapter 22

Cade kept glancing behind them as the distance stretched out. Shiro sat there on the ground for a while, and when they were reaching the outskirts of the town, he stood up and started to climb up towards his Lion, waiting patiently.

“I can’t wait to tell Simon you’re alive.” Brian told Cade as they slowed the ruve down to something more acceptable for the streets. “He talks about you a lot.”

Cade had to focus his attention away from the ache in his chest as he watched the giant climb up the hill and away from them all. “How is the little rascal?” He awkwardly rubbed his chest. Phantom chest pains probably.

“A rascal no longer.” Brian straightened up. “He’s not stolen a thing since he came here with us.”

“He came with your family?”

“Yup.” He didn’t have to see his face to know he was smirking. “I caught him stealing a climbing hook on the last day, and I decided, what the heck, he could come with us.”

“I bet he loved that.”

“Oh yeah.” He scoffed. “I totally didn’t have to practically kidnap the boy. Came along just fine, he was as complacent as a baby.”

“You can drop the sarcasm. How’s he adjusted to living here?”

“Well, he’s not on the streets. You know my Mom. She always wanted another son, and well, I don’t mind having a little brother of my own.” He shrugged. "I think he got attached to my sisters though, and he decided it wasn’t too bad to stay.”

“Cade. Brian.” The Captain rode up beside them. “Come with me. We’re going to the healer’s to see my daughter.”

They arrived at the building, tying the ruve to a post outside and going in. There was a woman in the front. “We were expecting you.” She held back the curtain. “Angelica’s back there.”

“Thank you.”

Angelica was sitting in one of the beds, ankle in a new bandage and splint, elevated on a pile of blankets. “Hey guys.” She smiled.

Her father sat on the stool beside her bed. “It’s so good to see you, Angelica.”

“It’s good to see you too, Dad.” She gripped his hand. “I missed you, so much.”

“What about me?” Brian raised his eyebrow.

“I missed you too, dummy.” She sat back against the pile of pillows behind her. “But, between you two, I was thinking mostly of Cade the time I was stuck up there.”

He looked offended.

“Well, she did think she saw me get killed.” Cade nudged his arm. “So, that’s that.”

“What?” His eyes widened. “How?”

“Long story.” Cade sighed. “But, if it’s alright with you, Sir, I’d like to rest.”

The Captain gave him a long look, then relented. “I have questions for you I’d like to hear before long, but until then, you’re both free to go.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Brian steered Cade out of the room and back up on the ruve. “Would you mind sleeping in my family’s home until we can get your house built?”

“I don’t mind so long as I never have to sleep in a nest ever again.”

There was a short ride through the town, and Cade saw many shocked stares from people passing. A murmur seemed to follow them wherever they went.

“You aren’t just a crazy hermit anymore.” Brian chuckled. “You’re a crazy hermit that survived being stranded among the stars with a bunch of man-eating giants.”

“They aren’t-“

“Yeah, but _they_ don’t know that.” They had arrived at the house. “To them, you’re a crazy, stupidly brave, hermit.”

The door opened as they slid down and Simon came running out. “Cade!” He slammed into his middle, sending the larger man stumbling back a step. “You’re okay!”

“Hey buddy.” He hugged the brown haired boy tightly back. “You seem to be doing pretty good for a little street kid, huh?”

“Not a street kid anymore.” He squirmed out from his arms. “I’ve been adopted.”

“Hello Cade.” Brian’s Mom came out of the house, wearing her grey house dress, apron still smudged with whatever she was making at the moment, and hugged Cade. “I hope you don’t mind we took your little ward from you.”

“I’m just glad somebody dragged him out of the Castle, else he’d have been stuck up there too.” He shrugged out of her grip.

“Well, dinner should be ready soon. I assume Brian already told you of our offer?”

“Yeah, and it’s a very generous offer, I don’t want to intrude.”

“Nonsense. You’re part of this family too.” She grabbed his arm and practically dragged him into the house. Cade could have cried as he looked around the well lived in home. Everything was his size. These things were made for people like them.

“Cade!” Two girls, twins, older than Simon, but not adults yet either, hugged him tightly. “We heard what happened.” One of them started.

“It must have been so scary, being trapped up there.”

“We saw a giant. Did it capture you?”

“Were you hurt?”

“They’re so big! It must have been terrifying!”

“Tell us about it!”

“Girls.” Their Mom pulled them off. “Just show him where he’s sleeping and then come help me with dinner.”

Simon tugged on Cade’s sleeve. “C’mon. You can share my room.” He led him to a room with a bed in the corner. The walls were sparse, except for the drawings that were hanging by the window above the desk. There was also a dresser and a trunk, and a mostly empty bookshelf. “We’ll put together a nice cot for you to sleep on.”

“Sounds adequate until I can get my own place.” Cade dropped his bags by the door and rubbed at a crick in his back. He fished out the broken quiver and arrow tip. “We’ll talk more at dinner, but for now, I gotta go give this back to Brian, okay?”

“Could I come with you?”

Cade considered it for a moment. “I don’t see why not.”

Outside, they found Brian brushing his mount. “Hey Cade. Were the girls too….you know?”

“No. They’re just curious.” Cade shrugged. “I don’t blame them. I think this is yours.” He held out the quiver and arrow.

"Dude." He took it from him. "I thought you lost this."

"Well, I'm a little more responsible than you think."

"Says the guy whose house got destroyed and he didn't think to go get help from the village."

Cade gasped, hand clutching his shirt. "Brian, I'm hurt."

\----------------

It was night time, and Cade was sleeping on a cot in the floor. He was so tired, he wanted to just sleep, but he couldn't. In his own weird way, he actually missed being on the Castle. He missed the hum of the engine and the creak of the metal. And, weirdly enough, he was missing the large inhabitants of the castle.

He sighed and flipped over. This was going to be annoying to get back on a regular sleeping schedule after just sleeping whenever for however long he wanted.

"Cade, are you okay?" He heard Simon's voice in the dim.

"I'm fine." Cade sighed. "Just tired, but I can't sleep."

He heard Simon rustling in his bed, and then the boy appeared beside him. "You want a hug?"

"Sure." He sighed and scooted over. Simon flopped down beside him and snuggled into his chest.

"Better?"

"Better." He wrapped his arms around the boy and, after only a few minutes, fell asleep.

The last conscious thought that ran through his head was that maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Maybe the transition from living in the walls of the spaceship that was the Castle to living out in the bridge colony wouldn't be that awful.

After all, he had his friends and his safety. And who really needs anything more?


End file.
